GREENHOUSE IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN BY C.F. MØLLER ARCHITECTS

The project includes a comprehensive restoration of the old hothouse in the Botanic Garden in Aarhus originally designed by C.F. Møller Architects.

In the restoration the palm house will become a new botanical knowledge centre, at the same time as the complex is extended with a new, 18 metres high tropical hothouse, in which the public can go exploring among the tree-tops.

The existing snail-shaped hothouse was well adapted to its surroundings, and it has been important to bear the existing architectural values in mind when designing the new one.

The new hothouse also uses the organic form, which is, at the same time, based on energy-conserving design solutions and on a knowledge of materials, indoor climate and technology.

Advanced calculations have ensured that form and energy consumption interact in the best possible manner.

The domed shape and the building's orientation in relation to the points of the compass have been chosen because this precise format gives the smallest surface area coupled with the largest volume, as well as the best possible sunlight incidence in winter, and the least possible in summer.

The support structure consists of 10 steel arches, which fan out around a longitudinal and a transverse axis, creating a net of rectangles of varying sizes.

FormTL planned and designed a cover for these arches made mainly of double-layered ETFE cushions, which are affixed with biaxially bent profiles due to their complex structure.

On the south-facing side, the cushions used were made with three layers, two of which were printed. Through changes in pressure, the relative positions of these printed foils can be adjusted.

This can reduce or increase, as desired, the translucence of the cushions, changing the light and heat input of the building.

Location: Aarhus, Denmark

Architects: C.F. Møller

Engineering: Søren Jensen Rådgivende Ingeniører

Landscape: C.F. Møller

Size: 3300 m2(1242 m2new tropical hothouse and 2071 m2 renovation and rebuild of existing hothouse

Year: 2009-2013

Competition: 1. prize in architectural competition. 2009

Client: The University of Aarhus by Danish University and Property Agency

BUBBLES BY ORPROJECT

Orproject proposes the construction of an enclosed park within the city. The park houses a botanical garden, the air inside the park is clean, and temperature and humidity are controlled throughout the year.

The buildings surrounding the park, which are connected to the controlled air system, can house apartments, offices and retail, but may also offer sports or medical facilities which make specific use of the healthy air.

Environmental Considerations

The geometry of the light-weight structural system has been generated using an algorithm which simulates the development of veins in leaves or butterfly wings.

The heating and cooling of the air is done through a ground source heat exchange system. Electricity for the project can be generated by solar cells integrated into the canopy surface. Botanical Gardens have been built in many world cities. They are attractions for tourists and recreational facilities for the inhabitants of the city.

Both children and adults can experience nature and learn about the plants of the park. Inside the green houses, the temperature and humidity are controlled throughout the year, which allows the growth of plants from any climate. The plants and landscapes from all over the world can be placed inside the Bubbles project.

Economic Construction System

The idea of covering larger areas of a city by a transparent surface has most famously been proposed by Buckminster Fuller with his dome over New York, but his proposal was conceptual and would not be feasible to construct. However, Orproject together with a specialist contractor has developed a new type of construction system which is light-weight and affordable.

The proposed roof system can be used to enclose an urban botanical garden, but the system also lends itself for many other applications at various scales: It can be used to economically enclose playgrounds or school yards, it can form the atrium of an office building or shopping mall, or it can be used to cover the gardens of an apartment.