The weather outside the Tropical Glasshouse has been beautifully wintry this month, both quite cold and wet, which has led me to muse more deeply about glasshouses and the philosophies behind them.
Added to this, I was recently asked “Just what do you think it is about glasshouses that people find so attractive”? Now while I think about this a fair bit (it’s basically my full-time job to try and work that out and deliver it here at the RBG Melbourne) the question did give me pause for thought, and a good chance to reflect a little deeper on just why we as human beings are so drawn to glasshouses and conservatories.
Naturally as we ponder such matters it pays to cast our gaze back to the beginning… or perhaps what we can see as a beginning. There are many great sources for information regarding the history of conservatories and I managed to pick one up last year (when visiting Adelaide Botanic Gardens to see their new Victoria Pavilion) titled “Greenhouses and Conservatories” by Olivier de Vleeschouwer (Flammarion 2001). It seems the origins of the conservatory probably lie in the Orangery, and over time these types of buildings have evolved through many different stages and styles– from the conservatory built on the north side of your home to assist with thermoregulation to some truly magnificent examples, such as Paxton's Crystal Palace or perhaps a more modern equivalent, the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project.
At the heart of any conservatory or glasshouse (and even the humble terrarium) lies the principle of control: put simply, it is the construction of a space where humans maintain the elements of the natural world enclosed within… of course, like life itself, we never actually have any real control, we merely work with what is, and tamper with it in ways that we find pleasing. Why should this evoke such deep feelings in us, so much so that we build enormous structures at great expense to do this tampering? My feeling is that the source of the inspiration and motivation for these immense works is the same source which also calls in us as children to catch insects in jam jars and keep plants in ice cream containers - it touches us very deeply as human beings and is centered on our connection and interaction with the natural world… so let’s get philosophical…
As human beings we are subject to the laws and actions of the natural world – despite our increased disconnection with nature, we are and always will be organic beings living in dynamic organic world. While we may pride ourselves on our technological achievements (and usually justly so) these too are still subject to the fundamental laws of this physical realm, and merely offer us some comfort and ease of living wherever we find ourselves – and I for one am extremely grateful to be sitting in front of a heater while it’s 5C outside! Naturally our architecture reflects this desire to be comfortable and provides us with shelter from the elements, although this sheltering can exacerbate our disconnection to the earth and its cycles - so just how does all this relate to conservatories?
Well, it seems to me that the principles of normal human architecture are reversed in glasshouses – instead of us sheltering inside a building, protected from the natural world, the glasshouse flips that natural order on its head and puts the natural world INSIDE a human building… thus, humans become responsible for maintaining the climate of the now enclosed ‘natural world’ – and now we begin to touch on the source of those deep feelings. When we become responsible for something, we begin to feel in control, which to some degree we are: without our care the plants in the glasshouse would die; we cannot, however, dictate when they will flower or how fast they will grow (although we can influence these somewhat), so that control is very limited.
This, I think, is what is fundamental to the pull glasshouses have on us – it gives us a sense of playing god for the living beings in our care. The book I referenced early puts it thusly (p7): “The greenhouse grants man the inordinate powers of a deity: it is he who provides earth, water, heat and light.” This feeling is polar to our everyday experience, in which we are subject to the elements, and therein lies our attraction to glasshouses and their kin - the opportunity, albeit fleeting and not really true, of feeling in control of our surrounds and the things that affect us.
Added to this is the opportunity of being transported instantaneously to another world – be it the heart of the steamy Amazonian rainforest or the baking sun of the Namib Desert, glasshouses offer us a journey to another place, distant and foreign to our usual surrounds. Such spaces capture our imagination, and those who can still discover the world through the eyes of a child can feel the magic in visiting a beautiful conservatory: seeing tigers hiding behind the pots, hearing monkeys call among the treetops and maybe, just maybe, finding that which we lose so easily and yet is only a moment away – reconnection with the natural world and our sacred place within it.
Happy Journeying!
