Scientific Research Plant Nurseries

Flavio Dorta

• Architects

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz, a world reference as a specialized botanical garden, and one of the largest palm collections from tropical islands worldwide, required an upgrade to its facilities by incorporating scientific research plant nurseries as well as various ancillary services, worker changing rooms, and offices pace for biologists.

photo_credit Flavio Dorta — Flavio Dorta

The assigned plot, faces south along a mountain slope that forms the Palmetum,offering a commanding view of the ocean and the Eastern coast of Tenerife. This plot resulted from a previously built breaking retaining wall formed a platform which, embedded in the slope, bécame the strip of land we had to occupy. Mindful of the site’s scars, we started from that fracture to arrange the components: following the geometry of the site, the four containers are placed slightly rotated, leaving a narrow margin between them and simultaneously allowing a rear service corridor, a walk way along the wall. Thus, in the work areas between th ebuildings, the proximity of the modules and the narrow back alley creates haded, small-scales paces that favor ventilation and reduce direct sun exposure.

The nurseries, moreover, function like a herring bone, linked by a transverse paved corridor that organizes accesses and easily separates the different uses. At the ends of the complex are the servic ebuilding and the office, with the main nurseries between them, each with highly specific humidity, light hours, and ventilation conditions. A monitored programme controls the particular conditions requested and, based on measurements of each parameter, coordinates the various installations to ensure optimal ventilation, the exact degree of shading, the need for misting, or, when necessary, the activation of supplementary lights for the growth of developing species.

We had to take the soil’s low bearing capacity into account, so a reinforced concrete Tbeam foundation on cyclopean concrete footings was designed to support the steel structure, built with bolted sections. We aimed to minimize settlements while facilitating construction. Regarding materials, the façades consist of a galvanized steel enclosure clad with double-texture polycarbonate panels– the lower strip is translucent strip; the upper strip and roof are opalized. These façades were designed to balance the buildings’scale and provide a veil of subtle transparency, ideal for plant life development inside. Interior fittings were designed with galvanized steel and pine-plank boards paired with permeable deployé mesh in the false ceilings that add a warm counterpoint. Finally, exterior conditioning uses compacted earth paving to avoid the heat island effect, subtly anchoring in the terrain what is essentially an industrial installation with multiple technical requirements.