SPACEPLATES Greenhouse Bristol

by Anne Romme in collaboration with N55

Wedged in on a small piece of land between large parking lots, the SPACEPLATES Greenhouse Bristol, functions as a class room and growing space for the horticulture students and their teachers at the South Bristol Skills Academy. The Greenhouse Bristol is the first building to be completed with the SPACEPLATES BUILDING SYSTEM. The greenhouse enables the school to study and grow plants all year round, and will be used for seeding and growing plants for the outdoor gardens adjacent to the site.

Unlike Bucky Fuller’s well-known and well-tested domes (where the number of different parts are kept at a minimum) the SPACEPLATES BUILDING SYSTEM takes advantage of contemporary technology to mimic more complex naturally occurring geometries. This version of the SPACEPLATES Greenhouse is based on the sea urchin geometry, where hexagons are arranged on a geodesic grid on a sphere. Five spheres intersect each other and form a sequence of spaces.

(Source: anneromme.com)