Giraffe house - under construction

The giraffe will have a yard that is large enough for them to use every day but there will be a race for them to access the African Plains for when conditions are suitable.

They don't hang about here, do they?

As someone from this site once wrote (you know who you are)

"a quintet of giraffes are housed in one of those peculiarly British zoo buildings - a combination of agricultural architecture and suburban flowerbeds".

Looks like we have another candidate here, why can't we have a giraffe house like Rotterdam?

Cost. And if you try building something ambitious and iconic you might have trouble getting rid of it when it turns out to be useless for the animals it was designed for, eg Casson,Mappin etc. But mainly cost.

I think most recent Giraffe Houses in the UK have been in this style, e.g. Cotswold, AA, Port Lympne, Folly Farm(?) Noah's Ark, the Safari Parks etc.

The only exception I know is Marwell which is a decent architecturally-styled complex building- IMO the best building at Marwell though I doubt they would have built something like this in the current economic climate.

My main regret is that we won't be able to go in it. I love the giraffe house at Chester, the smell and there's nothing like standing right next to Thorn and appreciating just what a truly amazing animal he is.