Green Ark, a new garden pavilion from modified softwood, is conceived for plant conservation
The Green Ark, set in the heart of Belgium's Meise Botanic Garden, is an ultra-sustainable visitor pavilion by NU Architectuur Atelier
The Green Ark now graces the Meise Botanic Garden on the grounds of Bouchout Castle in the Flemish Brabant. The new pavilion is part of a project to revive and extend 7,600 sq m of greenhouses in this centre of plant conservation. The structure, designed by NU Architectuur Atelier, is fashioned from Kebony Clear wood to create a dramatic lattice structure at the heart of the 92-hectare Botanic Garden’s conservatory complex.
Green Ark: caring for the world's endangered plant species
The Meise Botanic Garden is one of the world’s largest conservatories of endangered plant species. The restoration project encompassed the Garden’s 22 different greenhouses, each one dedicated to a particular environment, while education and conservation are also a key part of the activities on site.
NU have created a dramatic centrepiece in the Green Ark, a pavilion that sits at the heart of the one of the newly restored conservatories and offers visitor and educational experiences. The new structure has a curved roof of Kebony wood shingles that appear like scales as they cascade down its steep curved sides. Inside, the huge arched roof reveals the naked wood structure, raised up on a concrete frame with a glazed ground floor that looks into the surrounding sweep of glasshouses.
Working alongside the Flemish Government and De Keyser Wood Industry, as well as Archipelago Architects, NU have made the most of Kebony’s FSC certified softwoods. The company has become renowned for its ‘modified wood’ process – and for its support of artists, architects and designers – which uses softwood’s much faster growth rate and a special process of combining the wood with furan polymers to increase its solidity and stability. This puts Kebony’s softwoods on a par with hardwoods, at a fraction of the cost and growing team, leading to far more sustainable outcomes for sourcing and carbon capture.
For the Botanic Garden and for Kebony, NU’s Green Ark makes a timely and striking statement, epitomising a more ecologically-led approach to structural timber, and avoiding the use of tropical hardwoods. The new pavilion is also set up to recycle rainwater from the shingled roof, while the rest of the roof structure is a flat terrace that gives elevated views into the surrounding greenhouses. There is also a connection to the on-site seed bank, offering visitors an insight into the ongoing conservation work at the Meise Botanic Garden.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Maude’s Brâncuși-inspired sex toys go on display in a new Paris exhibition
Maude’s design-led vibrators are now on display at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as part of ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’. Brand founder Éva Goicochea talks to Wallpaper* about partnering with the museum and opening up cultural conversations around sex
By India Birgitta Jarvis Published
-
‘I was captivated by the idea of merging two iconic brands’: Nigo on his 1990s-inspired collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz
Unveiled at Moncler’s ‘The City of Genius’ event in Shanghai this past weekend, Japanese fashion designer Nigo unpacks his three-way collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz, which includes a play on the G-Class alongside a fashion collection in his eclectic style
By Jack Moss Published
-
Cathay Pacific’s new business class Aria Suites take flight
Cathay Pacific raises the bar for business-class travel with the launch of the much-anticipated Aria Suites
By Lauren Ho Published
-
Residence Norah is a modernist Belgian villa transformed to its owner’s needs
Residence Norah by Glenn Sestig in Belgium’s Deurle transforms an existing gallery space into a flexible private meeting area that perfectly responds to its owner’s requirements
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Bruges Triennial 2024 takes over the city with contemporary art and architecture
Bruges Triennial 2024, themed 'Spaces of Possibility', considers sustainability and liveability within cities, looking towards a greener future
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
‘Interior sculptor’ Christophe Gevers’ oeuvre is celebrated in new book
‘Christophe Gevers’ is a sleek monograph dedicated to the Belgian's life work as an interior architect, designer, sculptor and inventor, with unseen photography by Jean-Pierre Gabriel
By Tianna Williams Published
-
A Belgian house in the fields blends subtle minimalism with family life
House in the Fields by Stef Claes is a family retreat in the green Belgian countryside sprinkled with a US modernist architecture twist
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
House P’s linear, leafy composition aims for a ‘sensory architecture’
House P by Vandenborre Architecten is a family home conceived as a leafy sanctuary of minimalist elegance in suburban Belgium
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This 1970s brutalist house in Belgium has a new life as a designer’s home and studio
1970s brutalist house Villa Stuyven is now home to creative couple Bram Kerkhofs and Lore Baeyens, providing a concrete-lined backdrop to a life of design and collaboration
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Step inside the Pringiers family’s rural retreat in Belgium
Belgian architect Glenn Sestig’s latest project for the Pringiers family is a rural retreat and private gallery featuring an award-winning concrete construction
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Restored Villa Nisot in Brussels brings modernism to the 21st century
Restored Villa Nisot in Brussels updates modernism with contemporary character
By Siska Lyssens Published