Underrated and highly visionary: greenhouses are the laboratories of contemporary architecture

One of the most monumental expressions of how iron and glass architecture synthesized Victorian style in a greenhouse. Designed to house a collection of palm trees in the gardens of Kew, the structure features a towering height with a pavilion-like roof where wrought iron arches and glass form a majestic transparent volume. This greenhouse takes full advantage of technical innovation to create a perfectly controlled environment, where the artificial climate supports lush tropical vegetation that fills the interior space entirely. Architecture and vegetation merge, as trunks and columns blur together, capturing a poetic harmony between nature and artifice.

Twin greenhouses act as contemporary propylaea, opening the view toward Parc Citroën in Paris. Minimalist in their design, the greenhouses evoke the rigor of industrial architecture, recalling the former manufacturing site that once stood in place of the park. At the same time, they convey a monumental presence in relation to the surrounding city. These structures thus take on an almost symbolic meaning, transforming the very language of the greenhouse into a synthesis of memory and a celebration of plant life. Inside the volumes, two distinct plant worlds emerge, shaped by Mediterranean and tropical microclimates. The medium-to-low vegetation allows the eye to pass through the glass façades, creating a continuous dialogue between nature and the urban environment.

The poetry of engineering, typical of Foster + Partners’ architecture, is evident in the Great Glasshouse as a singular space that weaves together landscape and architecture. Located in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, the project features a large ovoid dome resting on a concrete base covered with a green roof, resembling a hollowed-out hill. The greenhouse blends seamlessly into Wales’ undulating landscape. The white-painted steel structure forms a simple, regular geometry, while an internal computer system monitors the climate conditions, optimizing energy use.

The Xi’an Greenhouse by Plasma Studio integrates with the terrain and resembles a series of folds in the land. Compressed geometries interlock the various inclined planes, which, like faceted diamonds, emerge from the ground. These glass spurs conceal an imposing interior structure, where each glass triangle is subdivided into smaller geometric shapes. The greenhouse is no longer just a compact building, but a true spatial journey, a ribbon between earth and sky that, as the architects describe, transforms the greenhouse into a spatial experience. The architecture merges with the site’s topographic plasticity, reinventing the very typology of the greenhouse.

Designed in Aarhus, this tropical greenhouse by C.F. Møller Architects features a dome shaped like a snail shell. Conceived in the 1960s, the project was only completed in 2013. The dome, adjacent to the existing botanical center, uses ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), allowing each transparent panel to take on a rounded shape. This makes the greenhouse feel like a living, breathing space, as if air were gently blown into the dome. The form is also optimized through precise engineering calculations to maximize energy efficiency and solar gain.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Renzo Piano, the greenhouse is integral to the MUSE – Trento Science Museum. It fits within the broader architectural scheme of the museum, where inclined planes create a dynamic, faceted profile echoing the Trentino mountain landscape. The greenhouse serves as the concluding element of the museum complex, forming a vegetated space slightly sunken below the external ground level, creating a visual continuity from the public square into the greenhouse. The sloped roof acts as a water collection system, and the inclined façade completes the greenhouse and the entire architectural volume.

In contrast to the previous sculptural experiments, Kuehn Malvezzi’s Rooftop Greenhouse adopts a more traditional form, yet rethinks the concept of the urban greenhouse and the reuse of flat, unused rooftops. In response to growing concerns about urban food sustainability, the German studio proposes repurposing the rooftop of a building to create a new space for local food production. Here, the greenhouse is not merely a formal exercise but functions as a zero-kilometer agricultural lab, encouraging the growth of vegetables and plants while contributing to densely populated urban contexts’ environmental and food sustainability. A manifesto project that, in its simplicity, redefines the greenhouse’s role.

Agrotopia, designed by Kolpa Architecten and META Architectuur, evolves the archetypal greenhouse form into an architectural element that redefines the roofline and façades of a research center. The project serves as a research hub for urban agriculture, combining indoor farming with advanced technological systems.
The building, made of traditional reinforced concrete, is capped with glass structures featuring pitched roofs that entirely envelop the concrete volume. Unlike the Kuehn Malvezzi project, the glass system here also descends along parts of the vertical façades, becoming a formal language that shapes a series of diamond-like glass volumes.

The Taiyuan Botanical Garden project revitalizes a former coal mining site, redesigning a large stretch of land and inserting three hemispherical domes as topographic elements of the new landscape. These domes house three greenhouses, each constructed entirely with glulam (glued laminated timber). While the three domes appear as pure volumes integrated with the fields and water features from the outside, it’s inside where the space truly captivates. The use of timber transforms the character of the greenhouse, blending the hues of vegetation, fragments of sky, and the earthy tones of the curved beams into a continuous spatial atmosphere.

Designed by KPMB and known as The Leaf, this recently completed structure introduces a new experimental approach to greenhouse form. The volume is neither a dome nor features any traditional pitched roof. Instead, the studio used the Fibonacci sequence to design a spiral roof where ETFE preserves the lightness of the transparent elements. The result is the perception of a floating fabric suspended in mid-air, subtly anchored to the ground by tension cables that hold the spiral’s fluid motion.
Inside, the greenhouse is defined by its structural elements, while a central walkway serves as a dynamic axis, elevating the experience of interacting with the vegetation across multiple levels.