Meranti-Halle (tropical hall of the Allwetterzoo)

The present Allwetterzoo opened in 1974, replacing the city's former zoological garden. It had a Tropenhaus, demolished in 2021 to make way for the current building. The replacement belongs to the "Masterplan 2030 plus", approved in 2018 with an investment volume of 59 million euros and developed with the agency dan pearlman Erlebnisarchitektur. The Meranti-Halle is its first completed element, and the trade magazine EAP calls it the largest construction project in the zoo's history.

The client is Westfälischer Zoologischer Garten Münster GmbH; the architect is BAnTec, based in Berlin, and the structure was engineered by knippershelbig. The ETFE covering was installed by Temme//Obermeyer, with LEICHT as design partner. Project sheets place construction between 2020 and 2023, and the opening announcement speaks of thirty months of work. The hall opened on 23 June 2023. It cost about 21.5 million euros, including 1 million euros donated by the Zoo-Verein according to Wikipedia; features added during the project for the environment, the animals and visitors raised the project volume by about ten per cent. The structural engineer and the zoo both present it as Europe's first "regenerative" tropical hall.

The hall is covered by an elliptical dome of three-layer ETFE membrane, carried by a transparent steel grid shell and a cantilevered steel structure. The engineers knippershelbig give it about 68 × 48 m and 20 m in height. Other sources describe a hall of 4,400 m² and 16 m high (Wikipedia, Teckentrup, EAP), a roof of 2,500 m² (the roofer LEICHT's project sheet) or 3,000 m² (Nordkurier). One layer of the cushions is printed to provide sun protection; according to the Nordkurier, the foil is only 0.25 mm thick and lets through 80 per cent of the light and 91 per cent of the UV.

Heating relies on 34 geothermal probes that bring up water from a depth of about 250 m; pipes embedded in the walls and floors heat or cool the volume. Photovoltaics supply electricity, and roof rainwater is treated and used to water the plants. According to Wikipedia, geothermal energy covered about 60 per cent of the energy needs at the end of 2024. Inside, the artificial rockwork, indoors and outdoors, and the illusion paintings are by KaGo & Hammerschmidt; bridges, platforms and observation towers let visitors see the animals without bars or nets.

More than fifteen exotic animal species, some of them seriously endangered, live in the hall according to the opening announcement: giant otters, lowland tapirs, anteaters, black howler monkeys, ring-tailed mongooses, red varis and sloths, together with amphibians, reptiles in terrariums and free-flying tropical birds (zoo website, Wikipedia). The otters can be watched swimming underwater through a large glass front, and waterfalls enliven the setting.

The interior planting was designed with the University of Münster's botanical garden, and Leipzig zoo advised the team on creating a convincing tropical atmosphere. The hall's name refers to the meranti, a group of tropical hardwoods. Outside, a walk-through enclosure holds Bennett's kangaroos.

The Meranti-Halle stands inside the Allwetterzoo, which the official site says is open all year and in any weather; according to EAP, it rises near the entrance. Feedings are public, and their times are listed on the "Tierischer Stundenplan" page of the zoo's website. An events area adjoins the hall.

The visit combines with the rest of the park: the Artenschutzcampus (fish, reptiles, amphibians), the Kinder- und Pferdepark, the Westfälisches Pferdemuseum next door to it, and the walk-through kangaroo enclosure. A little over two kilometres away, the glasshouses of the University of Münster's botanical garden are also in the catalogue.