Santa Monica Greenhouse

Santa Monica Greenhouse Part Office + Cactus Store

Curated by Paula Pintos
GREENHOUSE • SANTA MONICA, UNITED STATES
Architects : Part Office
Area : 1070 ft²
Year : 2020
Photographs : Anna Beeke
Design Team : Jeff Kaplon, Kristin Korven, Carlos Morera, Max Martin
Contractor : Racing Green
Client : Redcar Properties
City : Santa Monica
Country : United States

2 30
©Anna Beeke

Textual content description offered by the architects. The Santa Monica Greenhouse is the third greenhouse designed in collaboration with the Cactus Retailer in Los Angeles. Positioned adjoining to the Bergamont Station practice cease, it’s located inside a big industrial advanced being transformed to a retail and workplace district.

3 29
©Anna Beeke

The undertaking is related to the shopper’s workplace building, positioned in a former warehouse, and homes their non-public specimen and large-scale cactus and succulent assortment. It’s certainly one of a number of additions to the building, every housing a special artisan, sculptor, or fabricator with whom they incessantly collaborate.

4 30
©Anna Beeke

To take care of current egress paths, the enclosed volumes of the greenhouse are positioned between the workplace entry doorways. The result’s a sequence of “terrariums” of various sizes, housed underneath a singular roof. These pods have two units of operable, sliding doorways on every inside facade, permitting for an infinite articulation of related or separated areas. This additionally supplies an expanded variety of circulation alternatives as effectively, traversing strictly perpendicular to the workplace when closed up, or longitudinally alongside two paths when open. This play on strong/void, clear/opaque is additional bolstered by the roof, which has translucent panels above the planted areas, and strong metal above the pathways.

5 29
©Anna Beeke

The outside-facing facades of the greenhouse are designed with a tinted, double-walled polycarbonate that gives a dynamic vary of reflections, colours, and opacity relying on the time of day and angle of view. The elevational dimensions of the undertaking had been based mostly across the measurement of those sheets to cut back labor prices and work inside a restrictive finances. An untreated metal mesh is used on the inside faces to permit transparency and airflow by way of the undertaking, and the principle structure is a mix of three” and 1.5” uncooked metal tubes to maintain all constructions and sliders inside a single line. Over time, the metal will rust, mixing it with the tint of the polycarbonate panels, and making a extra monolithic look.