Tropical Greenhouses of College of Coimbra’s Botanical Backyard / João Mendes Ribeiro

Textual content description offered by the architects. The Tropical Greenhouses and the brand new on-site Science Nook are positioned within the excessive city of Alta de Coimbra. They belong to the College’s Botanical Backyard in-built 1772 by the Marquis de Pombal. The Tropical Greenhouses, accomplished in 1859, are one of many first examples of iron structure in Portugal, their reference being the Kew Gardens greenhouses in England. The intervention within the greenhouses concerned restoring and recuperating the present constructions and implementing appropriate technical options for the expansion of the crops and for the usage of the area, specifically for receiving visits. These circumstances implied new shading and air flow means, to ensure the suitable hygrometric and moisture ranges and entry to and throughout the constructing.

One of many measures with the best impression within the rehabilitation of the greenhouses was recovering the unique inside/exterior relation and reinstituting the transparency of the glass on the vertical surfaces and the roof by eradicating the whitewashing that had added opacity and weight to the glazes surfaces. To switch the earlier system of temperature and lightweight management achieved by whitewashing, new laminated clear glass was utilized, with inside shading screens. This measure serves to appropriate the poor thermal regulation, photo voltaic safety, and safety of the area, resulting in a radical alteration within the picture of the greenhouses, which now current a definite configuration relying on the seasons.

The central wing corresponds to a singular second within the go to to the greenhouses, given its very excessive ceiling and the existence of a gallery together with the higher degree. To bolster its distinctive character, the flowerbeds have been eliminated and changed with a big pond through which to develop Victoria Amazonia, a species of a large water lily from the Amazon River basin. The pond is lined with black-painted metal plates to emphasise the mirrored floor of the water.

As with the brand new Victoria Pond, the on-site Science Nook was constructed from scratch subsequent to the greenhouses to obtain infrastructures and a brand new program. Paying homage to the standard cool homes, this constructing has a backyard roof with a wooden and stone construction and wooden slatted shutters.