The Loops: A Koala Rehabilitation Centre That Turns Circulation Into Conservation Education

Most wildlife facilities ask the same question: how close can people get before the animals pay for it? The Loops answers with circulation rather than fences. A continuous path coils around a central koala habitat, and every turn, ramp and change in level becomes a lesson in how to look without intruding. The building does not just house conservation; it choreographs the act of watching it.

Designed by Xi Chen, the project was shortlisted in Haven 2020. It sits on a naturally sloping site and folds habitat preservation, animal rehabilitation, education and public engagement into a single architectural experience. Rather than flattening the hillside to make room for a programme, the proposal hovers lightly above the terrain, follows its contours and lets portions of the building sink into the ground.

Two Interlocking Systems Drawn Into One Hillside

The exploded axonometric shows the project's organising logic: a series of interconnected loops that sort circulation, observation, rehabilitation and habitat into clear relationships. Underneath the spiralling form are two distinct systems. The public system carries educational spaces, exhibition zones, observation platforms and immersive routes. The rehabilitation system holds medical facilities, laboratories, intensive care spaces, operation rooms and administration, kept separate for safety and efficiency.

This separation is the project's most consequential decision. Visitors can witness conservation work without disturbing the animals or interfering with veterinary operations, and clinical staff can work without performing for an audience. The circular callouts in the drawing make the point visually: the same compact form allows views into the habitat and protected interior zones to coexist without overlap.

Green Roofs That Let the Hill Keep Its Profile

From the rooftop walkway, the building almost disappears. A visitor leans on a timber railing and looks across planted courtyards toward a curving slatted wall, and it is difficult to tell where the architecture stops and the landscape begins. Embedding parts of the building into the slope and covering them with green roofs reduces visual impact and improves environmental performance, but the more interesting result is experiential: the roof becomes another layer of the public route rather than a dead surface.

The effect is coexistence rather than dominance. By tracking the existing contours, the proposal limits disruption to terrain and vegetation, which matters on a site meant to support koalas, animals whose wellbeing depends on the landscape remaining intact.

Looking at Koalas From Below, Beside and Above

The glazed observation room is where the project's ambitions become tangible. A family and a photographer gather around a glass floor panel, peering down toward the grassy slopes. Chen integrates these transparent panels into floors and platforms so that koalas can be observed from below, at eye level and from above, alongside elevated observation decks and smaller pocket observation zones for quieter encounters.

Varying the viewing angle is more than a novelty. A three-dimensional relationship with an animal, rather than a single frontal view through a barrier, builds a stronger emotional connection, and that connection is what turns a visit into support for conservation. The architecture stops displaying animals and starts encouraging attention.

A Ring of Timber Around the Centre

The circular atrium, ringed by tall vertical timber fins with a glass stair and dark stone columns, expresses the geometry behind the whole scheme. At the heart of the project is a continuous visual corridor that loops around the central habitat, so movement itself becomes the educational sequence. Changing viewpoints, shifting elevations and carefully framed connections reveal different aspects of koala behaviour and habitat ecology as visitors progress.

The fins do quiet work here. They filter views rather than opening them wholesale, which suits a pathway designed to encourage exploration while keeping a respectful distance from the animals. Accessibility and protection are balanced through the wall itself, not through signage or rules.

Ramps That Read the Slope

Timber-railed ramps climb the grassed hillside toward the slatted curved building, and visitors walking the path give a clear sense of scale. The ramps are the most direct expression of the project's stance: instead of cutting stairs and terraces into the ground, the route rises gently with the terrain, touching it lightly as the building appears to emerge from the hillside.

The arrival sequence also primes visitors for what follows. By the time they reach the loop, they have already spent several minutes moving through the landscape the koalas depend on, so the habitat reads as part of a larger ecosystem rather than an enclosure.

Why This Project Matters

The Loops treats circulation as a conservation tool. Many wildlife projects layer education on top of care as an afterthought; Chen separates the two systems from the start and then uses the public loop to make care visible without compromising it. The result is a building where the path visitors take carries the message, and where distance from the animals is designed rather than enforced.

It also offers a useful model for building on sensitive sites. Following contours, embedding mass and planting the roofs are familiar moves, but here they serve a clear purpose: keeping the habitat intact for the koalas while giving people a reason to care about it. For a competition about refuge, that dual commitment to animal and visitor is exactly the right brief to set for oneself.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designer: Xi Chen

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Project credits: The Loops by Xi Chen Haven 2020 (uni.xyz).