Steel trees with sprawling branches support the glass roof of this greenhouse in Switzerland by Buehrer Wuest Architekten (+ slideshow).
Located in a botanical garden outside the village of Grüningen, the greenhouse is used for growing subtropical plants such as banana and papaya.
The architects borrowed structural patterns found in nature, like the membranes of a leaf, to create the geometric structure of the roof.
Glass screens subdivide the space to create different planting areas.
Other greenhouses we've featured include one made from Lego and another with a temporary restaurant inside.
Photography is by Markus Bertschi.
Here are a few words from the architects:
The new pavilion at the botanical garden at Grueningen relates strongly to its context. The design was inspired by the surrounding forest, not the built environment.
Both the formal vocabulary and the structural concept derive from nature. The pavilion is conceived to harmonize with and expand the forest.
Site plan - click above for larger image
The form was developed using Voronoi tessellation, also known as natural neighbor interpolation. Analogous to cell division in nature, the geometry of the roof as surrounding membrane was determined by the position of the old and new trunks.
Column plan detail - click above for larger image
The forest was augmented by four steel trees that form the primary structural system of the pavilion.
Column detail - click above for larger image
At about five meters, the trunks branch toward the treetop, which forms the natural roof. A secondary glass construction, suspended from the steel branches, encloses the inner space of the greenhouse.
Breathtakingly beautiful.
Now that IS nice.
Sorry guys but our office came up with that idea first. http://www.dezeen.com/2011/06/08/tree-restaurant-… Just be real.
To quote a FAT dude, "It's not what you steal, it's the way that you steal it".
The restaurant uses that form for for admittedly beautiful decorative effect, whereas this is structurally very integrated.
Also, other than on the most superficial level, these designs aren’t even that similar.
Jed is correct. And it’s not the best idea to point out to the world when someone does something similar but better than “you”. Just appreciate it and glean what insight you can.
http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_WORKS/SBA…
Did they steal your idea too, Tak? if so, you should hire them to take your ideas and make them infinitesimally more sophisticated.
Tak, I hope youre joking with that comment about having that idea first: http://www.nadaaa.com/#/projects/banq/
Finally a greenhouse that does not look like it came from the 19th century.
The “execution schematics” are a godsend, thank you Dezeen!
Tak, I think you should have paid a little attention when listening to the architecture history lectures. The idea is much older and you can find the core of this concept in late gothic vaults. Anyhow: there is nothing wrong with finding a motive in the history of architecture. But it is pitiful if you use it as an interior design instead of a structure and are not even able to realise your own adaptation and the step forward which Buehrer Wüst did.