New book · Decor and biotope

Small Living World

Designing Zoos, Bioparks and Terraria

A park with animals is a small living world that does not close at night. When you save in the wrong place, the animal pays.

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Cover of Small Living World — Designing Zoos, Bioparks and Terraria by Aleks Svirydzenka

What the book is about

Between the science and the concrete

Welfare science knows a great deal about what animals need. Builders rarely read it. Species requirements sit in documents of different countries and different legal force. And on the craft itself — rock, surface and coating in an animal's environment — there is very little data.

This book stands exactly in that gap. It shows how to turn what science knows about an animal's life into real decisions: the brief, the budget, the barrier, the ground, the water and the surface of the rock the animal lives on every day — with decor and biotope that are true for the animal and convincing for people.

It is not a veterinary manual and not a structural calculation. It is a translation between disciplines — so that the knowledge of the vet, the zoologist and the engineer reaches the hands that finally build the animal's world.

A theme park is built for those who come. A zoo is built for those who stay.Small Living World

Who it is for — and what each reader gets

Not against anyone. For everyone who decides.

Zoo directors

The decisions that must be taken before construction — and the lines in a budget that must never be cut, because the animal pays for them.

Curators and keepers

A way to turn welfare needs into a brief that designers and contractors can actually build and price.

Architects and landscape designers

Barrier, ground, water, shelter and rock surface — decor and biotope as working parts of the habitat.

Contractors and craftsmen

What paws, hooves, claws and skin need from a surface, a coating and a detail — and how to check it on site.

Municipalities and procurement

Why price-only tenders become expensive, and what to ask designers and contractors instead.

Terrarium and aquarium builders

Closed, wet and warm worlds: terraria, pools and tropical halls, with their own risks.

Ideas the book stands on

Six sentences that carry the book

The public gives the first grade. Time gives the second.

An object is judged on opening day with the eyes — and years later by rain, frost, cleaning and use.

Truth for the animal. Conviction for the human.

Decor must convince the visitor; the biotope must serve the resident. Both, not one instead of the other.

Visitors see the beauty of the rock. The animal feels the truth of its surface.

Texture, grip, temperature and wear decide daily life in the enclosure.

Stone must convince people. It must serve the animal.

Two jobs for one surface — and why the second one cannot be traded away.

A good question before the first sketch costs less than any answer after the animals move in.

That is why every chapter ends with questions to ask.

Fair is when the one who earns pays — not the one who lives here.

The book's closing thought about who carries the cost of cheapness.

Built on research

~1,500documents studied

500+works cited

EUregulation framed at European level, with national benchmarks

Everychapter ends with checklists and questions to ask designers and contractors

Evidence is labelled honestly throughout: what a study shows, what an organisation recommends, what a norm requires — and what is the author's own conclusion, open to dispute.

Inside the practical edition

Eleven chapters and an afterword

Each chapter follows the same pattern: the argument and the evidence, short boxes from practice and from the workshop, and a closing set of questions in the form “Not: … Instead: …” — ready to take into a design meeting.

1A world that does not close at nightA small living world — and an obligation. Who pays for cheapness.

Two parks after closing
A good life, not only the absence of suffering
Three users, one first client
Who pays for cheapness: an evidence map
From menagerie to biopark

2The main resident: the animalFrom “freedom from” to “a life worth living”.

The Five Domains, read with a drawing in hand
Choice and control
Space, complexity and the trodden path
Shelter, view, sound, light and sleep
Group, keeper and old age

3The person at the enclosureFive seconds at the glass: the visitor as the third client.

What stops a person
Visibility is the first filter
The attention budget
How the environment changes the view of the animal

4Masterplan, site, seasons and standardsBiomes, not continents — and back of house first.

The crane that could not get through
Neighbours, and fewer species
The site is alive
A world for every season

5The boundary: barriers and safetyA wall in a rock costume — and the rock at the fence as the first way out.

Moats: a beach, not a canal
Glass, mesh and hot wire
People on both sides
Checklist and questions to ask

6Truth for the animal, conviction for the humanTwo exams for one rock.

Why convince people at all
How much truth is enough
The double test
The field reference
Model, maquette and sample panel
Geology for the sculptor

7The rock shell and its surfaceThree sides of one rock: inside, under paw, hoof and flipper, warm and cold.

What hides inside the rock
The surface under paw, hoof and flipper
Warm and cold stone
What disappears when the line is cut

8Functional decor, trees, ground, water and plantsDecor that is used, not only looked at.

Feeders, hides and magnets
Trees, vines, logs and termite mounds
Ground is part of the decor
Water in decor: basin first, then rock
Living plants on artificial rock

9Colour, ageing, dioramas, unity of the zone — and does it work?Colour as geological biography — and the evidence.

What to learn from the diorama
Unity of the zone: theming without Disneyfication
Does it work? What is proven and what is not
A short gallery of benchmarks

10Terrarium, pool and tropical hallClosed, wet and warm worlds.

The terrarium is a set of gradients
Materials that do not kill
The pool is a machine and a window
The tropical hall: climate under a roof

11Project, money, construction and life after openingThe price of cheapness — and life after the ribbon is cut.

The circle of a project
Money and tender
Building among animals
Specification and acceptance
Life after opening

✦Afterword: Who paysHow the animal pays — and what is proven versus the author's conclusion.

The same scene
How the animal pays
What is proven and what is my conclusion
Why the animal
Morning

I am not trying to replace the vet, the zoologist or the engineer. I am trying to make sure their knowledge reaches the people who build the animal's physical world.Aleks Svirydzenka

Editions and availability

Two editions of one book

The book is fully written and ISBN numbers are assigned. Because there is so much information, it comes in two versions: a short practical edition and the full edition in three volumes.