Botanical gardens have always had the role of curating and displaying plants for archival and research purposes. Their function for society is to create public awareness for the protection of biodiversity. Here we propose to reinforce this function by giving the Old Botanical Garden Zurich a new prominent face: a glass entrance on the Schanzengraben side. The entrance leads through a glass tunnel to an existing, larger tunnel below the garden, which we accommodate into a growing facility of tropical, endangered species.
The visitor enters the shop through the glass tube, where he gets to experience a rich, jungle environment, resembling the Amazonian forest. The tunnel is made out of concrete which also holds the stones of the wall above the entrance. The space between the glass and concrete on the inside is also filled with soil, so that the concrete is entirely hidden. The bottom of the glass tube is filled with water, which additionally reflects the lights coming from the back. The visitor continues his walk through the larger tunnel over a hanging walkway. The walkway guides through a forest of large glass cylinders in which the endangered plants from the Amazon are grown. The inside of the glass cylinders are electronically strictly controlled environments, each ensuring optimal temperature, water and nutrient conditions for the particular plant species grown inside a cylinder. By cultivating and propagating endangered species, the shop will contribute to their survival.
At the end of the walkway the visitor exits the tunnel through a circular glass lift. The lift transports one up, to ground level into the Botanical garden. The outside of the lift is surrounded by some of the stones taken out of the Schanzengraben wall. The stones at the other side around the front entrance are worked in a way to enhance plant growth, so that the wall around the glass front will eventually become a green wall, which will reflect the richness grown and protected in the inside. The shop will be connected by the extension of already existing docks in this area and will be well visible from the Schanzenpromenade.
Collaboration with Johannes Hoppensack.
Patricia Himeka Wepfer 