Ubuntu is a zulu word that doesn’t have a direct translation in any other language. Basically it means, “I am because we are”. This is a concept that I am passionate the world needs to embrace right now. The world needs to embrace it on so many scales, from one person to another and from one country to another. One place that I strongly believe humans need to embrace this is in the relationship between animals and humans. Because of us, so many animals are endangered and losing their homes. But what we fail to realize is the impact these animals have in our world. Every animal has a function in the ecosystem and if we keep reducing other species and increasing our numbers, the world’s balance will be more than thrown off.
My garden is a garden that helps the World Wildlife Foundation. The garden is in the shape of a bamboo plant because the panda bear is the “face” of the WWF. I also like the idea because the stem of the bamboo can be the main axis and the branches and leaves can be minor axises. All of the components work together to form the plant and without any single component the plant would not function as well. This ideology applies to how the ecosystems in our world will slowly diminish as these animals near extinction. This garden should be a space that both animals and humans can enjoy. It will be sustainable because all the animals will be provided, in the design, everything that they need to live as they would in nature. That is what truly differentiates this garden from a zoo.
The approach to the garden is simple; one drives up to this garden in China and parks in the parking lot. From here on out, their journey will be by foot. This way the parking lot will be distanced from the animals, leaving them less disturbed. The entrance is a long rectangular lawn. Along the lawn there are numerous animal topiaries and informational signs. The entrance moves the visitor into the first compartment. There are five compartments and each one is themed after a different animal. There is a path running on the west hand side of each compartment where people can observe and learn about the animals. The people are divided from the animals by a haha; this way the distance and barriers between the two is minimalized. The land to the east of the structured garden is extra land where some of the animals are free to roam. The first compartment is to the north and the next compartments build downwards south from there.
The first compartment is Panda themed. The featured of this compartment include real pandas, a bamboo bosco, panda topiaries, and a Chinese fountain. There is also a huge pergola that covers the human path as well as provides shade for the pandas. This is a way to reinforce the Ubuntu idea within the garden.
The second compartment is dedicated to tigers. In this compartment there is the beginning of the mangrove swamp that continues through the next two compartments as well. This compartment has the four-river motif with four lawns lined with short box hedges and a Chinese themed pond in the middle. The path between the four lawns has patches of tall grass where tigers love to play. There will also be tiger topiaries and a banyan tree for shade.
The themes of the Banyan trees, bamboo trees and mangrove swamp all continue into the third compartment. This compartment was dedicated to chimpanzees. There is a pergola for climbing as well as two ponds, a stream, a bridge and bamboo trees. A sustainable feature in this compartment is that there will be banana trees as well. On the human pathway, there will be a pergola, monkey topiaries, another set of benches and a break area. The break area branches off to the west from the path and has a small lawn, snack shack, and restroom area.
The fourth section is dedicated to tuna and salmon. This section is very important because this is somewhere where humans can make a big difference. The only reason these fish are endangered is because they are overfished and over consumed. This pond showcases tuna as a beautiful creature of nature; as opposed to a delicious fish to eat on sushi. There will be beautiful and ornate fish topiaries to help accomplish this. It is nearly impossible to have salmon here because they need to live in both freshwater and saltwater, but there will be plenty of information about them. This is the compartment where the mangrove swamp ends. Tuna eat waterweeds; waterweeds thrive in water where there are eels, so both of these species will be included also.
The final compartment is dedicated to sharks and dolphins. Again there are logistic problems with having both because sharks prey on dolphins. Instead of trying to have a salt-water pond, this pond will just feature Chinese river dolphins that live in freshwater. There will be various other fish, turtles and frogs to make this an ecosystem and not just a tank. There is a beautiful Chinese themed waterfall to keep aerating the water for all of these animals to breathe. The pathway that goes into these two sections is modelled after the isolotta in the Boboli gardens. It is a floating pathway surrounded by water on all sides but one. Once a visitor is on it, it should feel like they are floating on an island with nature completely surrounding them.
After returning to the main pathway, the visitors walk through a topiary allee where they can branch off to the visitors center; an area where people can learn to reduce their footprint on nature and learn more about the WWF or donate money and time to the cause. There will also be a restroom and café here. Then after this, people proceed to the loading dock where they can either walk or take the shuttle bus back to the original parking lot. This distance should be about two and a half miles.
