Snowdon Aviary

Hailed as the most important tensegrity structure in the UK after the Skylon, the architecture of the Snowdon Aviary owes a considerable amount to its engineering. The design of the scheme is generally attributed to Lord Snowdon in collaboration with Cedric Price, but architectural historian David Yeomans has shown that structural engineer Frank Newby of Felix Samuely and Partners played an important role in its development [1]. The seemingly unlikely choice of Snowdon as designer was made by the London Zoological Society following his schemes for two smaller aviaries at Mereworth Castle and Windsor Great Park (the former survives). The overall plan for the zoo was directed by Hugh Casson and it was he that suggested Price assist Snowdon. They were also aided by Peter Shepheard. The steeply sloping site was managed by way of a retaining wall intended to double as a cliff type habitat for some of the Indian and African birds to be housed. Referred to by Reyner Banham in a gently offhand manner as ‘collapsed goal-posts among the trees’, the masts, cables and nets of the structure were compared to as within the ‘Arcadian tradition … whose triumphs are the palm stove at Kew Gardens, or Paxton’s Victoria Regia house at Chatsworth’ [2]. Responding to the need for a maximum volume of enclosed space, provision for a range of species, minimum maintenance and allowing visitors good views from outside and in, the mesh, supported by two double tetrahedrons of tubular aluminium and tension cables also satisfied the zoo’s request for a building ‘which would be forceful and of interest from a distance’ [3]. Visitors passing through the aviary walked across an elevated and cantilevered concrete walkway offering, quite literally, a bird’s eye view of waders and cliff dwellers. The mesh too was aluminium, rectangular and black anodized, made in 12ft (3.6m) by 4ft (1.2m) sections with crimped connectors. The interior landscaping was intended to become substantial in its maturity and to shroud the concrete used in the construction. Newby’s role in the development of the complicated structural design is well documented by the way he retained his working drawings, but Price’s contribution is less certain as his drawings have not survived. 

[1] Yeomans, D. (2018) ‘The Design of the Snowdon Aviary and the Nature of Collaboration’, Architectural History, vol. 61, pp.235-257.

[2] Architectural Review, September 1965, p.185.

[3] Architects’ Journal, 27 April 1961, p.599