The Ciutadella Park’s palm grove is a small garden of around 1,500 m2, made up of a large collection of palm trees and lush tropical bush vegetation. As part of the Zoo's facilities, the palm grove has always been used as a habitat for the collection of macaws. Its secluded location and the noisy and colourful presence of birds make it a corner full of charm, an exotic oasis within the park and a unique place in the city.
The immediate construction of a sports hall facing the palm grove gave rise not only to defining its limits, but also to remodeling the existing obsolete cages, which at the same time allowed expanding the collection of macaws and rearranging their exhibition to the public.
Faced with more naturalistic zoological options in which the bird's habitat in captivity tries to assimilate to that of its natural environment in freedom, our proposal sought to recreate a garden, full of cages of exotic birds, in the manner of the settlers from overseas, the Indians, who built in their homes in the mid-19th century, such as the Samà Park in Tarragona or the Castanys Tower in Olot, both designed by Josep Fontseré, precisely the author of the Ciutadella Park.
The design of the cage was carried out in close collaboration with the Zoo's technicians. The total area of each unit is 21.5m2, of which 14.40m2 are visible to the public and the rest is hidden; 5.20m2 are allocated to the bedroom and 4.90 to the maintenance corridor. The main structure of the cage is made up of a mesh of cylindrical tubes that close in on themselves until they form a metal cage. The need to obtain different degrees of transparency has determined the various qualities of the outer enclosure of the cage. The area where the bird can be seen is closed by means of an electro-welded mesh except in its front part where a large glass is incorporated that allows the macaws' vision to be detailed. The bedroom and the maintenance corridor are closed with wooden slats dyed in many colours. The cage has two accesses, one direct to the exhibition area and another to the maintenance corridor that surrounds the bedroom, which allows the keepers to carry out their maintenance work without being seen by the public and without having to access the inside of the cage.
The project has concentrated its efforts on the design of a sufficiently complex cage so that, through its repetition, it is possible to order the garden through the public’s path. The main criterion has been to ensure that the cages, arranged in an apparently random manner, offer different perspectives from the path of the public so that the whole is perceived as a picturesque system without rules and continuously surprising. Immersion in the palm grove is carried out in a civic manner, seeking to promote its exoticism while respecting its secluded character at the same time.
