French landscape designers and architects who won an international competition to build a new zoo for St Petersburg last December shared more details and pictures of their project last week.

The design for the new zoo, created by the French designers Bruno and Jean Christophe Nani from TN Plus and architects Aldric Beckmann and Francoise N’Thepe from Beckmann company, looks back to the early history of the Earth, “when its surface was just one single super continent, known as Pangea,” the authors of the design said in a press release.

“The project offers a symbolic sample of every continent in an attempt to recreate the illusion of a reunited Pangea within the zoological park of St. Petersburg,” it said. “The archipelago created will be made of islands, representing Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, North America and Eurasia, the latter two being linked to each other by the solid ice of the Arctic Pole,” the company wrote.

“The chosen site enjoys an abundant supply of water, and is therefore particularly well suited for such an organization of various environments,” it said.

The cost of the French plan is estimated at $395 million and is particularly attractive due to plans for it to be constructed in stages, City Hall’s press service said earlier.

Governor Valentina Matviyenko said earlier that the city would finance the engineering infrastructure for the new zoo. It also plans to attract major private companies to construct the pavilions and open-air cages.

Founded in 1865, the city’s Leningrad Zoo is the oldest zoo in Russia. Like most other zoos across Russia, it suffers from a dire lack of space, being located in the heart of the historic city center.

The idea of moving the Leningrad Zoo to the Yuntolovo district first arose in 1992, having been proposed by the zoo’s then-director Ivan Korneyev.

It was decided to create a new zoo that will be situated on 300 hectares on the city’s outskirts in the Yuntolovo area.

Source: sptimes.ru