A floating cuboid pavilion, a glass box filled with opalescent steam, and above it, multiple vaults of oriented blur floating pavilion, a glass box filled with opalescent steam, and above it, two barrel vaults of glass bricks: this private greenhouse for tropical plants, Chile, unites the alpha and omega of glass architecture. The vaults hark back to the maximum sun rays direction, while the cubic glass reflects the environment and protects plants from everything.
But here the inhabitant is foliage once again, and the greenhouse, displaying its living contents as if in a vitrine, is fitted with automated systems for the maintenance of the kind of warm and humid climate that it requires. The illusion is of control over nature – something you cannot control.
Below, around the plants, a 1m high plinth clad in expanded metal reveals the heating system ducts that run around the perimeter.
Necessary to heat the room when temperatures drop below 14 degrees. These different mechanisms, added to a standard automated irrigation system, are operated simultaneously throughout the year by a digital controller, a common technology in greenhouses in the agricultural industry.
For the four glass fronts that surround the square plan of the building, extra clear glass was used, making it more translucent to the human eye, in this way the plants are more visible from the outside, turning the building into a large showcase that exhibits their inhabitants.
