The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology (MCBT) is a reptile zoo and herpetology research station, south of the city of Chennai, in state of Tamil Nadu, India.

The bank is the first crocodile breeding centre in Asia and comes under the purview of the Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. It was established with the aim of saving three Indian endangered species of crocodile the marsh or mugger crocodile, the saltwater crocodile, and the gharial, which at the time of founding of the trust were all nearing extinction.

MCBT had asked the Design Earth crew to create a number of sculptures on a facade wall at the entrance of their massive crocodile park. They were lokking for a facade that is more dynamic, and speaks to spirit of all the visitors who come to the Crocbank. 

This Project had two phases :

1) Prototyping and to scale 3D modelling

2) building the facade on site

First we started with sketching reptiles and understanding their behavioural patterns, textures, scale etc.

Before we made the large scale structures we tried setting our hands on small makettes. 

Gharial Fabrication

The Client - 

This DesignEarth project was in collaboration with The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology(MCBT),  a reptile zoo andherpetology research station, located 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of the city of Chennai, in state of Tamil Nadu, India. The centre is both registered trust and a recognized zoo under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and is India's leading institution for herpeto faunal conservation, research and education. The bank is the first crocodile breeding centre in Asia and comes under the purview of the Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.It was established with the aim of saving three Indian endangered species of crocodile, the marsh or mugger crocodile, the saltwater crocodile, and the gharial, which at the time of founding of the trust were all nearing extinction. 

The Task -

Our aim was to build the facade of The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust with mix media sculptres of various species of reptiles.

The goal was to build over 20 sand cast and 20 metal sculptures 

we had divided ourselves in two teams i.e. sand casting and metal welding.

I was the part of the sand casting team. 

Reaching the Crocbank!

Its situated on the East Coast Road!

workspace in Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT)

sand sculpting the inverse image of the tortoise then pouring a paper-crate mix for a sculpure. travencore tortoise 

After making the sand sculptures i shifted to the fabrication team where we fabricated the surfaces of the metal sculptures.