The total project consists of outdoor facilities and a building of about 5,500 m2 including an indoor compound for the elephants, management section, and visiting area. The wooden shell roof structure has big sized openings. The wooden roof spans 80 m. The maximum height from the ground is about 18 m. The roof support and foundation structure are made from structural concrete at six locations. Vested with the task of the bearing structure, the huge later- all forces from the ‘arch’ shape of the roof had to be carried down to the foundation using thin tapering n-like columns with limited dimensions. Also, the forces have a toppling effect on these bearing structures. Other interesting features are loads from the elephant themselves. Elephant leaning or hitting a wall should not cause damage and such load cases were interesting to analyze and design for. To bring both vertical and horizontal forces to the foundation with limited dimensions, the n like columns had to be positioned at locations. At other locations, the foundation needed permanent anchoring because the weights of the bearing structures and/or its lateral dimensions were not sufficient.
