The Global Flora Conservatory, an internationally renowned botanical collection at Wellesley College, was designed by the American architecture firm of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA Matx) in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team at Wellesley College led by Kristina Jones, Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic Gardens, and Cathy Summa, a Professor of Geoscience and Director of the Wellesley College Science Center.
The Global Flora project reimagines the “stand-alone” typology of the greenhouse as an interlinked and synergistic set of Wet and Dry biomes that are heated and cooled using renewable resources.
The design integrates a curved building form that follows the east-west sun path and engages the hillside topography of the Wellesley Campus. The iconic Durant Camellia tree, over 140 years old, is exhibited in a transparent pavilion linked with the new facility.
The new Global Flora is one of the first public conservatories in North America that is clad with a transparent ETFE building skin that enables the direct visual comparison and study of plant form across biomes, advancing public education and scientific research on plant adaptation and the ecology of climate change.
Source: www.metalocus.es Photography by: All images belong to Kennedy & Violich Architecture
