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Heatherwick Studio's new kinetic Glasshouse opens its petals to the English countryside

2022-06-28T12:14:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has unveiled a new small greenhouse project for the National Trust’s historic Woolbeding Gardens estate in West Sussex, England.

Taking the form of a sheltering flower bud, the structure comprises ten steel ‘sepals’ operated by a hydraulic mechanism that takes about four minutes to open. Its 141-square-meter (1,517-square-foot) interior contains a variety of subtropical Chinese flora and is surrounded by a new Silk Route Garden, which invites visitors on a 12-step journey through each of the trade corridor’s different geographic regions.

Image © Hufton+Crow

The studio says it was inspired by Victorian-era terrariums, and the structure took a total of six years to develop. The project was commissioned by the estate’s longtime owner, Stewart Grimshaw, who, along with his partner, Sainsbury’s heir Simon Sainsbury, had previously inaugurated sculptural interventions by William Pye and Philip Jebb into their sprawling 1,100-acre gardens, which former British Prime Mini...

MVRDV's new Flores Tower is a top-to-bottom exhibition of flower power

2022-03-14T13:25:00-04:00

The colorful new centerpiece of the 2022 Floriade horticultural exhibition is now set to debut after MVRDV announced the completion of its 43.5-meter (142-foot) Flores Tower in the Dutch city of Almere.

The vibrant structure comes complete with a custom-made, AR-enabled panoramic facade artwork titled Sympoiesis from Rotterdam-based Arttenders and the Flemish artist Alex Verhaest.

Taking the surrounding MVRDV-designed arboretum as its inspiration, the glass-paneled facade is activated by a digital scripting technique that projects a layered composition with images of 1,800 different floral species taken from various databases and university libraries.

The illustration covers the full catalog of plants and flowers available to visitors of the expo with an interpretive key located in the building’s plinth that offers itself as a proportionate wayfinding guide indicating th...