A West Sussex glasshouse for the Silk Route Garden
Heatherwick Studio’s kinetic glasshouse sculpture, Glasshouse, is designed as a focal point for the Silk Route Garden, a new outdoor space in the National Trust’s Woolbeding Gardens in West Sussex, England.
The unfolding structure is formed by ten steel ‘sepals’ with an aluminium and glass facade that take four minutes to open into a crown-shaped, 141 square-metre space.
Heatherwick Studio’s kinetic glasshouse sculpture, Glasshouse. Image credit - Hufton + Crow.
Glasshouse was designed in collaboration with the Woolbeding Charity and the National Trust, drawing inspiration from Victorian ornamental terrariums.
When the weather is warm, it opens its sepals via a hydraulic mechanism to offer sunlight and ventilation to its plants, while in colder weather it remains closed to provide shelter to a collection of subtropical species.
The unfolding structure is formed by ten steel ‘sepals’ with an aluminium and glass facade. Image credit - Raquel Diniz, Heatherwick Studio.
Inside the glasshouse a rare specimen of an Aralia Vietnamensisis is sheltered, providing shade for a collection of tender ferns, umbrella trees, magnolias and bananas.
“This is a place and a project that literally unfolds,” says Thomas Heatherwick. “You step through this bewitchingly beautiful garden and discover an object that starts like a jewel and ends like a crown, as the Glasshouse slowly unfurls.”
Glasshouse was designed in collaboration with the Woolbeding Charity and the National Trust. Image credit - Hufton + Crow.
Heatherwick drew inspiration from the design of 19th century glasshouses and smaller decorative plant containers such as Wardian Cases and terrariums, which were used by Victorians to transport plants back to Europe for display.
The Silk Route Garden surrounding the glasshouse takes visitors on a 12-step journey through a landscape influenced by the ancient trading route between Asia and Europe, where plants such as rosemary, lavender and fennel were collected and brought back to Britain for the first time. A winding path leads through more than 300 species and 12 distinct regions of the Silk Road, from Mediterranean evergreens to Gallica roses, now popular in England but introduced to Europe by Persian traders.
Topography changes distinguish between plains, plateaus and mountainous areas, with local references such as stacked stones in the Himalayan region and a Persian Well. Rocks and gravel change as visitors travel through different regions, and the glasshouse forms the final point in the journey.
When warm, Glasshouse opens its sepals via a hydraulic mechanism to offer sunlight and ventilation to its plants. Image credit - Hufton + Crow.
“This Heatherwick Glasshouse represents the cutting edge of technical design and engineering but it’s also a restoration of something that is park of Woolbeding’s history,” says Mark Woodeuff, from the Woolbeding Charity.
“It stands as a crowning achievement in contemporary design, to house the flora of sub-tropical south-west China at the end of a path retracing the steps along the Silk Route, from temperate Europe and across mountains, arid lands and high pastures that brought the plants from their native habitat in Asia to come to define much of the richness and glory of gardening in England.”
However, Heatherwick Studios say, “the greatest transformation is yet to come. That will occur over many years as the spectacular garden, tended by a team of passionate gardeners, continues to grow. A constantly evolving landscape designed to bring us delight and wonder.”
Heatherwick Glasshouse, West Sussex