Natascha Meuser

This Architectural and Cultural Guide East Polynesia challenges the romanticised visions of the South Pacific by critically examining the built environment through the lens of architecture, history, and cultural resilience. Across over 400 richly illustrated pages, it traces how traditional knowledge systems, ecological adaptation, and colonial ruptures have shaped architectural practices from the Cook Islands via French Polynesia and Pitcairn to Rapa Nui in Chilean Polynesia. With contributions from local experts, architects, geologists, and historians, the guide foregrounds the complex entanglements of place, power, and memory. Rather than offering a conventional typological catalogue, it maps networks of meaning: from sacred stone platforms (marae) and climate-responsive vernacular dwellings to the infrastructural legacies of nuclear testing and space-age geopolitics. The Pacific is not portrayed as a void but as a stage of cultural innovation and architectural intelligence. This publication is a carefully curated, research-based exploration of a region where architecture emerges not as monumentality, but as method: flexible, bioclimatic, and socially coded. Aimed at critically minded travellers, scholars, and architects, this volume invites readers to reconsider what architecture can mean in contexts defined not by permanence, but by rhythm, movement, and relational space.

This is the first ever manual to systemati-cally delve into the zoo as an architectur-al typology. The author Natascha Meuser examines five generations of zoological structures in order to show that the archi-tecture of zoos has always incorporated social values, fostering the coexistence of humans and animals, ever since the opening of the first scientifically run zoo. The manual presents documentation of 30 historical, pioneering zoo buildings that set new standards both functional-ly and aesthetically. Moreover, it offers an in-depth analysis of 50 internation-al zoos that have been built in the last 20 years. It includes floor plans to scale, elevations, and sections as well as large photos that offer deep insights that have never been available before. The author also presents ten design parameters that can serve as guidelines for the planning of a zoological structure.