LC0052

A composition about a greenhouse quarter. Rectangular cases and cylinders of differing heights stand in a dense array at varied levels and together read as a city skyline of towers and blocks — only with greenery instead of windows.

Sealed inside each are fern fronds, leaves and shoots; the walls carry condensation, so the plants are seen indistinctly, as through the side of a terrarium. The upper line of the composition is ragged — a city is never level.

By day it is a collection of herbaria under clear covers: transparent volumes through which everything is visible, the front row and what stands behind it. In the evening the light in the upper part of each case runs downward and lights the greenery from within: the leaves fill with acid green and the walls glow along their edges. A quarter of glasshouses lit all at once.

Where it works

Generous rooms — lobbies, meeting rooms, restaurants, winter gardens, showrooms. Transparency works when seen through: the piece is placed within the volume, not tight to the ceiling.

Style

Biodesign and urban modernism: nature set into a city grid. The message is contemporary — a piece for an interior with an agenda.