SHAPED BY CLIMATE

The Solar Greenhouse is a student-led, student-designed, and student-constructed two-story greenhouse and urban prototype. It is located in IAAC’s Valldaura Labs in the mountainous Collserola Park which forms the northwestern border of Barcelona.

Having been challenged to build a two-story timber greenhouse within the prescribed footprint, we focused on buildability and simple, rational gestures that respond to surrounding context. The diamond-shaped roof is tilted south in order to maximize the light absorbed by rooftop solar panels. A bridge between the upper floor and the upper terrace of the garden creates a dynamic and efficient circulation pattern. Although these design moves are specific to its unique location, the Solar Greenhouse’s formal and structural characteristics also are adaptable to a wide variety of both rural and urban sites. The design maximizes the ecological potential of its narrow footprint to grow plants on both floors, ideal for spatially limited urban rooftops or narrow lots. This prototype was designed to be disassembled and relocated to a different, potentially urban setting.

We harvested and processed wood from the surrounding forest as our primary structural material, crafting Cross-Laminated and Glue-Laminated Timber elements in our on-site facilities. Throughout the process each of us students became carpenters, researchers, landscapers, digital fabricators, gardeners, selective deforesters, and specialists in our respective responsibilities of the project.

FOUNDATIONS AND SITE WORK

We were interested in a foundation system that limited the use of off-site materials, particularly cement. The implemented system was inspired by a system of construction common in the hundreds of retaining walls around the park: a mix of local slate and quartzite secured with lime-based mortar. We harvested about six cubic meters of same stone types found around the immediate forest. To limit cost and carbon footprint, we further cut the quantity of off-site materials by introducing soil into the cement slurry. We installed steel adjustable feet in order to allow for any irregularities in assembly or uneven settling of the ground connection over time. This hardware connects to metal armatures consisting of threaded rods and steel plates.