Horizon Afrique Tropical House, Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park

The Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park was founded in 1868 on the initiative of local industrialists, Charles Thierry-Mieg the younger among them, to give the working population a place to relax. The town later took over its management when the founders could no longer carry the burden. Post-war rebuilding was completed in 1948; a small zoo school opened in 1965, and the park grew considerably in the 1980s. Run by Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, it received 295,500 visitors in 2024 according to Wikipedia.

The Horizon Afrique project was launched in 2018. Its clients, the zoo and Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, advised by HAMEAUCITE, entrusted the architecture to Fabre & Speller, the landscape design to Atelier Osty and the engineering (cost planning, structure, building services and site supervision) to OTE Ingénierie. The investment exceeded 18 million euros.

The area opened on 1 August 2025. It portrays two major African ecosystems, the savanna and the tropical forest of Upper Guinea, and brings together some sixty species spread across a savanna plain, a giraffe house, a pavilion of aquariums and terrariums, and the tropical house. Many of them, such as the Kordofan giraffe, the Mhorr gazelle and the pygmy hippo, are new to the park.

The tropical house is one of the four buildings of Horizon Afrique, an area of 2.7 hectares according to Nature et Zoo. Covering 400 m² and about ten metres high, it is built on a steel frame. Its roof is an insulating skin of ETFE air cushions, chosen to bring plenty of daylight into the interior.

Inside, the space is organised around three pools for the pygmy hippos, extended by side rooms that allow keepers to separate the animals for management. Outdoor pools, which visitors can watch from several angles, complete the arrangement. Water in the indoor pools is treated with an ozone system, and Horizon Afrique as a whole includes vivariums, aquariums, paludariums and underwater viewing panels.

The other pavilions use a different vocabulary: the giraffe house, 1,200 m² in area and 12 metres high inside, has a timber roof carried on a 26-metre beam, while the first building contains a cylindrical aquarium about 3 metres across.

The tropical house recreates the rainforests and wetlands of West and Central Africa. Its main residents are a pair of pygmy hippos and African slender-snouted crocodiles. Galagos roam freely, as do the free-flying birds, among them turacos; sources differ on the number of bird species, about ten according to Nature et Zoo and about twenty according to S-Mag.

Three pools are set aside for aquatic amphibians and small fish, including brightly coloured killifish, while cichlids and Polypterus fish complete the aquatic fauna. The house belongs to a park that also has a botanical vocation: according to Wikipedia, the zoo grows some 3,500 plant species and varieties, including 837 trees and shrubs.

The park covers 25 hectares in the Rebberg district, on the edge of the Tannenwald forest. Horizon Afrique lies at the heart of the site, and the tropical house is seen together with the savanna plain, the giraffe house and the aquarium pavilion, the whole area holding some sixty African species. The visit is worth extending into the park's gardens, which hold the Jardin remarquable label from the French Ministry of Culture and display plants from near and far. Waymarked Club Vosgien footpaths also lead from the zoo towards Zimmersheim and Eschentzwiller.