Indonesian Jungle Pavilion (Indonéská džungle), Prague Zoo

The Indonesian Jungle stands on the site of Prague Zoo's old monkey house, which had been in use for five decades. An architectural competition to replace it was held in 1999 and won by the Prague studio AND, namely the architects V. Danda, P. Ulman and J. Kosnar. The City of Prague acted as client and the contractor was Skanska.

According to the Czech Wikipedia, work began at the end of February 2001, whereas the pavilion's page on the zoo's website gives February 2002. Construction was slowed by the flood that struck the zoo in 2002 and was finished in October 2004. At 185 million crowns, the pavilion was at the time the most expensive project in the history of Czech zoos. It was formally opened on 29 November 2004 in the presence of President Václav Klaus; the outdoor orangutan enclosure followed in 2005.

The public response was immediate: the December after the opening became the busiest December in the zoo's history, and the following year the zoo passed one million visitors for the first time. The pavilion has since been known for several breeding successes, including the first Komodo dragons bred in the Czech Republic, in 2007, and the first smooth-coated otters bred in continental Europe, in 2017.

The pavilion takes the form of a glasshouse on an elliptical plan. It is roofed by a self-supporting glazed dome shaped like the cap of an irregular ellipsoid of revolution, carried on steel lattice arches. The glazing consists of insulating double-glazed units designed to withstand snow and hail, cut into irregular trapezoids of which the largest measure about 2 × 2 m; slim aluminium profiles hold them only along the joints, keeping visible supports to a minimum. Some panels are laminated glass with an embedded safety film that filters ultraviolet light, and parts of the outer surface can be walked on for maintenance.

The enclosed volume is 16,000 m³; the indoor exhibit covers 1,900 m², out of a total floor area of 2,900 m² according to Wikipedia; the outdoor orangutan enclosure measures 350 m². The technical article published at the opening mentions an indoor temperature of about 35 °C and relative humidity of up to 90%, with condensation drained through the cavities of the profiles. Ridge windows provide emergency ventilation and smoke extraction, supplemented by automatically opening roof lights.

Inside the hall rises an artificial tree about 16 m tall and weighing more than two tonnes, built on a metal frame by Michal Gabriel, Lukáš Rittstein and Barbora Šlapetová and completed on 28 April 2004; its roots form a passage between two zones.

The pavilion evokes the tropical rainforests of South-East Asia, Indonesia in particular: it represents the fauna and flora of Sumatra, Java and New Guinea, with mangrove and river habitats; in the main exhibit, stretches of water are the only barriers between animals and visitors. An entrance atrium opens the route with a cascade of four linked pools representing an Indonesian river. The lower hall houses Komodo dragons, pig-tailed macaques and otters; a nocturnal cave holds pangolins, monitor lizards and an aquarium of fish and snakes; the upper hall, planted as tropical forest, brings together six bird species, an orangutan peninsula for Sumatran orangutans and enclosures for small mammals.

At the opening in 2004 the pavilion showed at least 61 animal species: 13 mammals, 6 birds, 9 reptiles and at least 33 fish. In May 2022 Wikipedia counted 48. The zoo highlights its pangolins, which it describes as extremely rare. A large map, two wooden replicas of traditional boats and a wooden footbridge over a stream complete the setting.

The Indonesian Jungle is part of Prague Zoo in the Troja district, which is also home to the Prague Botanical Garden and its Fata Morgana glasshouse, featured in this atlas. The one-way indoor route runs over two levels linked by the nocturnal animal section, and it is fully accessible to wheelchair users.

Half an hour is enough to follow the circuit at a relaxed pace, with time to watch the orangutans both indoors and in their 350 m² outdoor enclosure. Warm and humid in every season, the hall also lends itself to a winter visit: the December that followed its opening was then the busiest in the zoo's history.