The new elephant house in Zürich Zoo is embedded in the extensive landscape of the newly designed Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park. The characteristic element of the new elephant house is its striking wooden roof which blends into the landscape as a shallow free-form shell-structure. The roof dissolves into a transparent mazelike structure that establishes an organic relationship to the surrounding forest. In the interior the roof unfolds its atmospheric effect: as if through a canopy of trees the sunlight filters through the intricate roof structure generating constantly changing light atmospheres.