Archinect - News

Two Scandinavian companies will recycle data center heat for food production

2024-11-22T15:32:00-05:00

A new project aimed at developing a circular economy in Scandinavia will build two large commercial greenhouses that run on waste heat taken from nearby data centers. The projects will be located in Varde, Denmark, and Östersund, Sweden. The project will increase domestic food production. The agreement between WA3RM and the Vinga Group is worth $908 million. It could also set a valuable precedent.

As Dutch academic Marina Otero noted after her win of the 2022 Wheelwright Prize: "The huge scale of the operations of the data industry and its pervasiveness and increasing importance in the contemporary world — coupled with its openness to innovation and concurrent pressures to find better socio-ecological models — creates a fertile environment for experimentation and action."

Longwood Gardens shares sneak preview ahead Longwood Reimagined opening

2024-11-15T17:18:00-05:00

With the final stage of a multiyear revitalization now completed, Pennsylvania’s Longwood Gardens horticultural center has announced its official reopening date will be November 22nd, 2024. This concludes the work performed by Weiss/Manfredi in collaboration with Reed Hilderbrand. The project cost for Longwood Reimagined was approximately $250 million.

Interior View, West Conservatory. mage by Sahar Coston-Hardy/Esto. Courtesy of Longwood Gardens.

Work on the 17-acre expansion culminated with the addition of a new 32,000-square-foot glass greenhouse designed by Weiss/Manfredi that houses the immersive Mediterranean garden creation from Reed Hilderbrand, serviced by a network of 128 geothermal wells which are connected to a ground-level heat exchanger.

nterior View, West Conservatory. Image by Ngoc Minh Ngo. Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand.

Beyond that is a brand new structure called The Grove that was made to host Longwood Gardens' education and administrative operations. Another impor...

Studio Gang-designed agricultural education center in Brooklyn breaks ground

2024-06-07T15:22:00-04:00

Last weekend, the Studio Gang-designed Marlboro Agricultural Education Center (MAEC) broke ground in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. The new 9,900-square-foot, $18.2 million project transforms the site of the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Marlboro Houses into an education, job training, nutrition and urban agriculture hub.

The Center is being delivered as part of the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Design-Build program. It aims to build on efforts to strengthen food autonomy and security in underserved neighborhoods. It also strives to empower young adults in these communities to engage with local, sustainable food production.

The Center will feature a rooftop greenhouse dedicated to hydro- and aquaponics. It will also include spaces dedicated to community activities and outreach, including a teaching kitchen, a pantry where produce grown on-site will be packaged before being distributed to neighborhood residents, and a multipurpose room that wi...

WEISS/MANFREDI’s Longwood Gardens overhaul in Pennsylvania to open November

2024-03-28T10:57:00-04:00

Pennsylvania’s Longwood Gardens has released an update of an overhaul of its horticultural campus by WEISS/MANFREDI which will open in November 2024. Titled 'Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience,' and designed in collaboration with Reed Hilderbrand, the project is described by the venue as “the most ambitious revitalization in a century of America’s greatest center for horticultural display.”

West Conservatory. Image credit: WEISS/MANFREDI with Reed Hilderbrand for Longwood Gardens

Currently under construction, the project sees 17 acres on the Longwood Gardens site transformed into a visitor experience to host exhibitions, programs, and events. At the core of the scheme is a 32,000-square-foot conservatory designed by WEISS/MANFREDI as a “living and breathing glass house” with walls and roofs that open and close in response to the weather. The conservatory contains gardens, pools, and fountains designed by Reed Hilderbrand.

Aerial view of construction. Image credit: Bancroft ...

CAW Architects completes Oakland urban farm project to deliver 30,000 school meals

2024-02-16T12:05:00-05:00

Palo Alto-based CAW Architects has completed a food-orientated educational project in Oakland, California. Named 'The Center,' the scheme comprises a central kitchen, culinary arts education center, and an urban farm, all designed to provide 30,000 fresh-cooked meals each day to 77 schools across Oakland.

Image credit: Bruce Damonte Photography

The project is anchored by a large outdoor court, shaded under an expansive wood trellis. Designed as a central hub to connect the kitchen, classrooms, and instructional garden, the courtyard is accessed from the classrooms by large glass roll-up doors, creating a natural circulation flow from the classrooms to the courtyard to the gardens and greenhouse.

Image credit: Bruce Damonte Photography

The classrooms include a full-service demonstration and teaching kitchen, in addition to a student education space, with intended users spanning early childhood to young adults...

Perkins&Will's new plant research facility opens at UC Riverside

2023-06-08T18:36:00-04:00

Perkins&Will has just announced the opening of their new 30,000-square-foot plant research facility for The University of California, Riverside’s College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (CNAS).

The two-story greenhouse design is billed as a state-of-the-art tribute to the “importance of plant research to the culture and character of UCR" and works by “placing a utilitarian research facility in a visible and approachable location,” according to the firm.

Image ©️ Here and Now Agency/Courtesy of Perkins&Will

Yan Krymsky shares: “It’s really a machine, a tool for research. But beyond that, we wanted to create a structure that spoke to the legacy of the university.” Kymysky serves as the Design Director of Perkins&Will’s Los Angeles office, which led the award-winning project through its completion in 2021.

Image ©️ Here and Now Agency/Courtesy of Perkins&Will

“It was important for us to couple practical functionality and the aesthetic roots of the surrounding greenhouses with the...

CHYBIK + KRISTOF debut greenhouse tribute to Gregor Mendel in Brno

2023-06-01T17:03:00-04:00

The Brno office of CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CHK) just completed a new scientific greenhouse project in its historic Czech Republic home city.

Mendel’s Greenhouse is an homage to the influential late-19th-century genetics biologist and takes its form from the namesake’s own drawings of the human hereditary system produced at St. Augustin Abbey, to which the then 22-year-old first came to reside in 1844.

Photography by Laurian Ghinițoiu. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF.

Taking the resemblance of the site’s original greenhouse that served as a laboratory for Mendel until it was destroyed in the 1870s, the new glass and steel structure will serve as a permanent exhibition of his scientific legacy as it doubles as a new hub for community and social engagement for Brno’s population of nearly 400,000.

Photography by Laurian Ghinițoiu. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF.

CHK empha...

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...

IAAC students build advanced prototype greenhouse for food and energy production

2022-03-04T12:00:00-05:00

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has unveiled a prototype greenhouse which responds to urban food and energy needs. The Solar Greenhouse was designed and built by a team of students, professionals, and experts from the school’s Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities program, and was constructed in a natural park on the outskirts of Barcelona.

Photo © Adria Goula

The greenhouse has been designed to be replicated in rural and urban areas, and potentially to populate the rooftops of urban buildings. Responding to the European Union’s zero-emission goals for 2050, the project seeks to return food and energy production to cities with a compact structure that uses solar energy, sustainable materials, and advanced urban farming technology.

Photo © Adria Goula

“The aim was to design and build a system that could be replicated in both rural and urban areas,” the team says. “Solar Greenhouse is the result of the investigation and search of new ways...

Delugan Meissl completes Taiyuan Botanical Garden featuring timber-based domed greenhouses

2021-06-02T19:16:00-04:00

Vienna-based firm Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) has completed the Taiyuan Botanical Garden, a project that introduces a vibrant artificial landscape, defined by three timber-based, domed greenhouses.

Located in Taiyuan, China, the botanical garden occupies the site of a former coal mine, which the client wanted to transform into a landscaped park and museum. The architectural concept is based on the pre-existing landscape and altogether balances the natural landscape, architecture, technological, and ecological solutions. The artificial landscape features hills, lakes, waterfalls, paths, and buildings.

The greenhouses are the project’s centerpiece, fostering suitable climates for plants from different regions. In addition, the botanical garden encompasses an entrance building, which contains a nature museum and administration facility, a restaurant tea house, a bonsai museum, and a research center.

The greenhouses are situated near the entrance of the site and are con...

As the Eden Project turns 20, its creators take a look back

2021-03-16T13:51:00-04:00

Our original designs for the biomes – hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal cells supported by geodesic tubular steel – looked more like Waterloo, but we used ETFE foil, or ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, which was more transparent than glass but extremely lightweight. It uses 1% of the energy and carbon of glass. The difficulty was creating biomes that would interlock across a constantly shifting landscape.

The Eden Project with its famed geodesic biomes opened twenty years ago on March 17th, 2001 in Cornwall, England.

Inside the tropical biome of the Eden Project. Photo: Hchc2009/Wikimedia Commons.

The world's largest greenhouse due to take shape for a 2020 Venice Biennale collateral event

2020-05-16T13:02:00-04:00

Zuecca Projects and architecture firm Coldefy have presented the exhibition entitled DOMUS - Architecture, Materials, Innovative Systems as a "Collateral Event" of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale due to be held in Venice from August 29th to November 29th.

Lower level plan

The exhibition is curated by Alessandro Possati, director of Zuecca Projects, and Arch. Thomas Coldefy, founder at Coldefy. The theme of DOMUS is dilineated with research and documentation of Tropicalia, which is expected to be the largest single-dome greenhouse on the planet.

Upper level plan

While the exhibition presents the vision for Tropicalia in the form of drawings, models, renderings, and diagrams, the structure is due to become a reality by 2023. The greenhouse proposes 20,000 square meters of tropical landscape covered by a massive dome rising 35 meters high.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden protests shadow-casting skyscraper with “Fight for Sunlight” exhibition

2019-08-01T16:08:00-04:00

A proposed mixed-use development slated for a site beside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) in New York City has BBG officials worried that the shadows created by the project’s twin 39-story towers will deprive the garden’s specimens of vital sunlight.

Gothamist reports that the brewing public battle between BBG and developers Continuum Company and Lincoln Equities reached a new level this week, as BBG debuted its Fight for Sunlight exhibition, a graphics-heavy information campaign designed to convey the magnitude of the damage that could be caused to the institution’s plants were the project to come into being. According to BBG, the garden is “one of the only places in New York City where you can see such a diverse collection of rare plants in bloom year-round.”

View of the five-building greenhouse cluster designed by Davis, Brody and Associates. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Elisa.rolle.

The 1.4 million-square-foot development is currently undergoing environmental review, accor...

The Ford Foundation's impressive (and much needed) renovation

2018-12-30T16:01:00-05:00

Astonishingly, the feel of the original emerged largely intact. [Darren] Walker, an aficionado of mid-century design with an eye for detail, spent serious money to salvage whatever was salvageable. Hanging brass lighting fixtures, door handles, granite-topped credenzas (some with embedded hot plates), Platner tables and chairs, black walnut bookshelves, bronze trim — 1,500 items in all — were given back their mid-century gleam. The Ford Foundation Building has become a museum of itself.

After many years of detailed renovation, the Ford Foundation has been successfully renovated and is ready to house 2,000 occupants. According to New York Magazine, "[the Ford Foundation] has withdrawn into a fraction of its previous space, halving the size of the president’s once imperial, now merely princely, suite. That shrinkage frees up space for three other nonprofit groups to rent, plus an art gallery and an abundance of meeting rooms."

Photo: Richard Barnes/Ford Foundation

Built in 1967 in Manhattan, New York, the Ford Foundation was designed by Dan Kiley and Roche-Dinkeloo Architects as a 160-foot “corporate greenhouse.” In his book, Manhattan Atmospheres (2014), the historian David Gissen argued that the Ford Foundation was a significant project in the history of environmental design for its ability to marry the image of botanical conservation with burgeoning practices in worker productivity, allowing the building to receive generous funding in its production of a building h...

World's largest single-domed tropical greenhouse, designed by Coldefy & Associates, coming soon to Northern France

2018-03-28T17:40:00-04:00

French architects Coldefy & Associates Architects Urban Planners have revealed plans for the world's largest single-domed tropical greenhouse. Called Tropicalia, this vast indoor landscape will soon pop up in the Pas-de-Calais area in Northern France and house all sorts of tropical flora and fauna under an enormous pillar-less firmament of EFTE pressurized air cushions held up by an aluminum frame.

Image: Coldefy & Associates Architects Urban Planners.

Here's a project description from the architects: "Tropicalia is a 15,000m2 tropical biodome that creates a harmonious world connecting man to an exotic natural, providing a constant temperature of 28°C in a region with notoriously poor weather. Whether it is an invitation into a dream, a grand voyage or an educational trip, Tropicalia is a place of discovery, amazement and ecological awareness."

Image: Coldefy & Associates Architects Urban Planners.

"This unique place will contain a diverse range of fauna and flora, butterflies, exotic...

Amazon's Spheres are now partially accessible to the public; here's how to get in

2018-01-29T17:05:00-05:00

Amazon’s Spheres, a botanical gardenlike workspace for the retail giant’s employees, are primarily a private space. But the company has set up a few ways for the public to access the geodesic domes — in downtown Seattle on Lenora Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues — starting Tuesday, when the Spheres officially open to visitors and employees.

The Amazon Spheres, designed by NBBJ, will now be open to the public; however, getting in may be tricky. There is the option of entering from the ground floor to see an exhibition about the Spheres, and the much more difficult option to join a guided tour of the entire headquarters.

Inside the Spheres at Amazon headquarters in Seattle. Image: Seattle City Council/Flickr.

Amazon has created an exhibit space called Spheres Discovery at Understory, located on the ground floor of the spheres. The space will showcase all the details about the design and plants housed within Amazon's newest addition to their Seattle headquarters. Admission is free, but you will need to make a reservation for your visit.

Amazon Spheres in the company's Seattle headquarters location. Image: iTecnologia/Twitter.

Getting in on the guided headquarters tour will give you access to the employee-only areas. These tours are offered on Wednesdays and include a stop at the Spheres, while they are free they are als...

Marijuana Real Estate: This isn't just another greenhouse

2017-05-21T23:57:00-04:00

Innovative Industrial Properties, Kalyx and other similar groups are following the same strategy: buy buildings, retrofit them and lease them to commercial or medical marijuana growers. But it can often cost millions to turn a vacant warehouse into a facility suitable for cannabis cultivation.

David Gelles reports that the spread of legalization means the weed business is booming and with it, demand for commercial, industrial space. The latest post-industrial trend in states like California, Colorado, Massachusetts or even New York is a retrofitted industrial-scale "cultivation center."

photo by Ryan Mungia

Related readings include; a 2005 look at how Pot Clinics (were) Grow(ing) Like Weed in SF and last year's photo essay of L.A.'s "Green Mile." Or back in February, the Marketplace Morning Report on how these new REITs could help grow the medical-marijuana business.

photo by Ryan Mungia

Finally, last year over at the Weed thread, gruen noted "Big gold rush here to convert disused industrial facilities to indoor grow in advance of legislation."

Forget ball pits – Amazon is growing over 3,000 plant species to fill its new downtown Seattle HQ

2016-07-19T17:33:00-04:00

the spheres will be packed with a plant collection worthy of top-notch conservatories, allowing Amazon employees to amble through tree canopies three stories off the ground, meet with colleagues in rooms with walls made from vines and eat kale Caesar salads next to an indoor creek. [...] “The whole idea was to get people to think more creatively, maybe come up with a new idea they wouldn’t have if they were just in their office,” said Dale Alberda, the lead architect on the project at NBBJ

While the benefits of greenery for employee productivity is well established, and any good tech company needs to play up the "serendipity machine" game, Amazon is taking this to an architectural level:

The spheres will have meeting areas called treehouses, and suspension bridges high off the ground that will be just wobbly enough to quicken the pulses of employees who walk over them. “Amazon said, ‘Make this fun,’” said Mr. Alberda, the architect.

This greenhouse can grow legs to escape flooding

2016-01-28T18:47:00-05:00

Constructed in an area which experiences frequent flooding, the Greenhouse That Grows Legs incorporates a novel approach to flood protection. The building is fabricated on a bespoke steel frame with four hydraulic legs, capable of lifting the building 800mm from the ground on command.

According to the designer, Bat Studio, the greenhouse stands on hydraulic legs that can lift it up in case of flooding – a common occurrence in the area.

Built in glue-laminated timber sections, the greenhouse is meant to be both visually-pleasing and functional. The most prominent façade includes externally-expressed "glulam" columns with mirrors bonded to their sides.

"As the building becomes established and filled with plants we hope this effect will become better and better," state the architects.

"The aim was to construct an experimental building exploring a novel approach to flood defence whilst not compromising the quality of the buildings design."

Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay wins 2013 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

2013-09-26T19:59:00-04:00

Cooled Conservatories, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects is the winner of the 2013 RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. This is the second year running for Wilkinson Eyre, who also won the prize last year for Guangzhou International Finance Center in China.

Previously: 2013 RIBA Lubetkin Prize Shortlists Three International Buildings

Also announced today: RIBA Stirling Prize 2013 goes to Astley Castle by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

SPACEPLATES Greenhouse Bristol by N55 + Anne Romme

2012-05-25T19:54:00-04:00

We have received images of the fascinating project, SPACEPLATES Greenhouse Bristol, a class room and growing space for the horticulture students and their teachers at the South Bristol Skills Academy in Bristol, UK. The project is a collaboration of Danish artists' group N55 with Copenhagen architect Anne Romme.

High-tech greenhouse planned for downtown Vancouver parkade rooftop

2011-12-14T20:25:34-05:00

The inside of the greenhouse will be anything but ordinary. Four-metre-high stacks of growing trays on motorized conveyors will ferry plants up, down and around for watering, to capture the sun’s rays and then move them into position for an easy harvest. The array will produce about the same amount of produce as 6.4 hectares (16 acres) of California fields, according to Christopher Ng, chief operating officer of Valcent.