Artificial Climates and the Agile Conservatory: Towards a new botanic infrastructure

Nature, historically seen as distinct and separate from cultural endeavors, is by necessity increasingly integrated into the manmade and constructed landscape. The result is a synthetic nature, different from romantic notions of untouched wildness, but continually adept at manufacturing new environments capable of evolution and reproduction. 

Conservatories, the crystaline structures evolving from the Orangeries of the 18th and glasshouses of the 19th century, are distinctly different from the production green houses used throughout the world at an agricultural scale since 14 – 37 CE (Common Era) Rome. Yet the legacy of conservatories as cultural destinations filled with botanic wonders is at a critical moment of inflection. As temperatures increase and weather events intensify, the evolution of climate adaptive transparent structures into fully living and breathing structures, passively modulating indoor climates, has increasing relevance for botanic research. The urgency for botanic research around climate change has never been more pressing.