How can the topic „regional biodiversity“ be imparted playfully and with longevity? By taking the classroom right into nature! On Friday, 19 July 2019, the Münchner Tierpark Hellabrunn opened its new Tierpark school together with further animal enclosures and enhanced educational elements.
After the first construction phase of the Mühlendorf (mill village) was completed in July 2018, the second construction part including the Tierpark school has now been festively opened. “We created a place where we cannot only get our daily visitors interested in our regional nature. Here, we can also thrill many future generations of pupils about nature right in front of our very doors. They learn what biodiversity really means: diversity of life”, says Rasem Baban, Director of the Tierpark, at the opening ceremony.
As central part of the Mühlendorf, the Tierpark school is an extracurricular space for teaching where school classes can study in and learn from nature. “There even is a living classroom where you can see theory coming into practice”, explains Christine Strobl, mayor and member of the board of the state capital Munich who has always been an enthusiastic supporter of the project.
The new Tierpark school, just like the first construction phase, has been conceptualised and supervised until its completion by the architecture team around Kieran Stanely, CEO dan pearlman experience architecture. “We are where happy that we, by realizing our concept, transferred the important topic of biodiversity in a story and into built reality“, says Kieran Stanley. “The project stands out by the didactic red thread which can be recognized everywhere in the Mühlendorf. I am thrilled about what a great destination for teaching, exploring and experiencing has been realized.”
Since July 2018, small and grown-up explorers have been experiencing endangered pet species in the Mühlendorf and have learned how these descend from wild animals. Visitors have witnessed the hatching process of chicks and got informed what “in-situ” means at the fish hatching house. With the completion of the second construction phase in 2019, the Tierpark school, further stables for Dahomey dwarf cattle, a kids zoo, a beekeeper wagon with hives and an enclosure for sand lizards can now be experienced. Moreover, educative elements have been extended by the topic “insects and regional biodiversity”.
Find further information on the Mühlendorf project here!
