Serre tropicali del giardino botanico dell'Università di Coimbra

Serre tropicali del giardino botanico dell’Università di Coimbra

Domus Restoration and Conservation Award

Project carried out with Fassa Bortolo products

Credits

Client

Università di Coimbra

Collaborators

Catarina Fortuna
Filipe Catarino
Ana Cerqueira
Ana Maria Feijão
Inês Lourenço
Joana Brandão
Joana Figueiredo
Nuno Alves Pereira
Sofia Rangel

Authors

João Mendes Ribeiro

The Tropical Greenhouses and the new Science Space are located in the Alta (high town) of Coimbra, belonging to the University’s Botanical Garden, built in 1772 by order of the Marquess of Pombal.

The Tropical Greenhouses, completed in 1859, are one of the first examples of iron architecture in Portugal, their reference being the Kew Gardens greenhouses in England.

Tecnical drawings:

Extended report:

Relazione estesa

The Tropical Greenhouses and the new Science Space are located in the Alta (high town) of Coimbra, belonging to the University’s Botanical Garden, built in 1772 by order of the Marquess of Pombal. The Tropical Greenhouses, completed in 1859, are one of the first examples of iron architecture in Portugal, their reference being the Kew Gardens greenhouses in England.

The intervention in the greenhouses involved restoring and recuperating the existing structures and implementing suitable technical solutions for the growth of the plants and use of the space, namely for receiving guided visits. These conditions implied new shading and ventilation systems to guarantee the appropriate hygrometric and moisture levels, as well as access to and within the building.

One of the measures with greatest impact was recovering the original relation between the interior and the exterior, by re-instituting the transparency of the glass on the vertical surfaces and the roof, previously painted. In order to control light and temperature, the newly placed transparent glass was installed with an interior shading system. This lead to a radical alteration in the image of the greenhouses, which now presents a distinctive configuration related to the seasons.

While the side aisles were kept to their greenhouse function, the central aisle is now a distinctive space, given its very high ceiling and gallery along the upper level. To reinforce its exceptional character, the flowerbeds were removed and replaced with a large pond, which is lined in black-painted steel plates to emphasise the mirrored surface of the water, containing floating water-lilies.

The Science Space was built next to the greenhouses to complement the needed infrastructures and new programmes. Relating back to the traditional portuguese casas de fresco, this building has a garden roof with a wood and stone structure and wooden slatted shutters, integrating seamlessly in the natural environment of the botanical garden.