No Comments »

Garden Conservatory is a Family Gathering Center

• Tweet

• Tweet

Lorenzo Alvarez and Karmina Miranda at Lorenzo Alvarez Arquitectos have designed a lovely conservatory that replaces a disused tennis court in Jilotepec, Mexico.

The garden retreat offers a sunlit space for outdoor socializing in a second living room in the garden for a large growing family.

The light and transparent building is organized into several glass-paneled sections set in a landscape that includes five sequoias, the largest tree species in the world.

The idea was inspired by the glasshouses and botanical gardens of Victorian England.

In addition to the outdoor kitchen dining living room, a second full length sink and two potting tables make starting seedlings easy in a nursery section.

In this nursery section, the family gardener can nurture new plants from other climates while also overseeing the children, through the glass.

The huge, warm, light, pleasant, open space for potting plants – inspired by Charles Darwin’s experimental greenhouse – is a very far cry from the usual cramped greenhouse.

The old tennis court had been abandoned for years, almost hidden by surrounding vegetation.

The architect realized that it was the ideal space for enjoying the garden from within.

Now it draws the family to a new center of activity, centered around a scientific hobby of gardening.

Nestled in the middle of a lovingly landscaped garden, the conservatory has become a new sheltered place for plants and people.

This lovely conservatory is every gardener’s dream nursery, and one that easily entices the kids out to help, and learn about nature.

And not only by day.

The extraordinary glass cabinet also provides an observatory for introspection and star gazing at night.