The DLC, a refuge owned by Duke University that houses the world’s largest collection of lemurs outside of their native Madagascar, had outdated and undersized facilities. The new two buildings, the Releasable Building and the Semi-Releasable Building, are part of a $10.4 million project master-planned by Lord, Aeck & Sargent.
The single-storey Releasable Building is designed to house 60 lemurs allowed to free-range in the DLC’s fenced 69-acre Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified Duke Forest. The Semi-Releasable Building houses 80 lemurs, a mix of geriatric and other lemurs who for physical, behavioural or social reasons have limited free-ranging capacity. This building is also designed with research facilitation in mind.
According to Anne Yoder, DLC director, the Lord, Aeck & Sargent team has created two professional-looking facilities that have balanced their aspirations to have an attractive and sustainable design.
Both the buildings feature animal housing wings radiating from a central core area that houses common resources such as a food prep kitchen, a veterinary exam room, a laboratory, a bathroom, and storage spaces. Each wing is designed to accommodate 20 lemurs along with dedicated storage for cleaning and keeper supplies.
The wings are designed with flexible layout to offer stimulating environment that resembles lemurs’ natural habitat. The flexible housing layout allows for different paths for the animals to explore. Each lemur occupies a housing module with 50 square feet of interior space attached to 100 square feet of fenced exterior space via a sliding door that opens whenever the temperature is 50 degrees or higher. Housing unit’s exterior ceilings and most walls are constructed of vinyl-coated welded wire mesh, which can withstand repeated cleaning and sanitizing procedures.
The buildings are designed to be easy-to-clean with washable outside and inside walls. They are coated with epoxy paint on the interior and a concrete sealer on the exterior. The panels are 44 feet long by 10 feet high, and glass blocks have been randomly inserted to bring into the buildings plenty of dappled-like natural light that mimics light filtering through trees in a forest.
The design team followed U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system as the guiding tool. Some of the water- and energy-saving features integrated into the scheme are: use of regional construction materials; FSC-certified wood laboratory casework; bamboo accent wall panels in the corridors; low VOC paint sealants; an energy-efficient HVAC system; occupancy light sensors in spaces occupied by humans; bicycle racks and preferred parking for low-emission vehicles; low-flow plumbing fixtures; and drought-resistant plantings.
The Duke Lemur Center was established in 1966 and today it has become the world’s largest sanctuary for rare and endangered prosimian primates. Nestled on 85 acres in Duke Forest, the Lemur Center houses about 250 animals, including 233 lemurs encompassing 15 species, along with lorises from India and Southeast Asia and bushbabies from Africa.
