Singapore Zoo
— — a forest with the cages taken away.
Not only on a wall.
“The open-concept zoo set inside the Mandai rainforest in northern Singapore, where moats and dense planting do the work that bars used to do. Orangutans move through the canopy on their own ropes, white tigers cross a stream into view, and the equatorial light filters down through fig and rain trees. The reservoir is a quiet edge along the western boundary. from the studio
Singapore Zoo, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Singapore Zoo occupies about 26 hectares of secondary rainforest on the northern shore of the Upper Seletar Reservoir, within the Mandai Wildlife Reserve. It opened on 27 June 1973 and houses roughly 4,200 animals across more than 300 species, of which a quarter are considered threatened. The zoo is one of four parks at Mandai, alongside Night Safari, River Wonders, and Bird Paradise. From the city centre it is about 20 kilometres north by road, reached most commonly via Khatib MRT and a connecting shuttle.
The park is open daily, generally from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., with tickets sold by Mandai Wildlife Reserve in single-park and multi-park bundles. The signature breakfast with the orangutans, hosted near the free-ranging orangutan island, has been a fixture since the 1980s, though specific format and pricing change over time, so the Mandai site is the source of record. The Fragile Forest biodome, the Wild Africa savanna, and the Frozen Tundra polar bear habitat are the most concentrated stops along the perimeter loop.
Singapore Zoo was a pioneer of the open-concept model, in which moats, glass, and dense planting replace cages and bars wherever the species and the safety case allow. Of the 4,200 animals, roughly one quarter belong to threatened species, and the zoo participates in regional breeding programmes for the Sumatran orangutan, the proboscis monkey, and others. The Upper Seletar Reservoir along the western boundary is part of Singapore's protected water catchment, which keeps the surrounding forest quiet and free of through traffic.