They Converted Old Quarry to Indoor Rainforest
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Alex Downie is the operations manager of the conservatory and the person who kindly shows us around this incredible tiny rainforest: the Bloedel Conservatory in Vancouver, Canada.
Back in the first half of the 20th century, the site the conservatory stands on today used to be a rock quarry. Eventually, the huge hole the quarry consisted of turned into an open water reservoir with a fence around. In 1965, the hole got covered with a concrete top, which created an opportunity to get innovative with the new space given. Prentice Bloedel, philanthropist and vice chairman of the MacMillan Bloedel Forestry Company, a timber exctraction firm, provided the majority of the money for the conservatory to be. Bloedel (ironically) being an environmentalist, he was one of the first timber barons to apply the principles of reforestation. The conservatory would be his way of making people appreciate the world of plants more.
The building of the Bloedel Conservatory itself is the largest single structure conservatory in Canada. One of the main inspirations for the project was the World's Fair in Montreal in 1967, called the Expo67, for which a huge triodetic dome had been built, looking like a big golf ball from a distance. The general idea behind this kind of building is to cover as much space as possible, using a minimum amount of material and with no need of any interior supporting columns. In this kind of space, the main focus is automatically on the plants, while in other spaces like greenhouses, the visitor is much more aware of being inside a building. The structure alone of the conservatory was build in 10 days and the whole site construction took one and a half years.
The main deficiency of the building that Alex Downie points out is that no provision was made for accessing the inside of the glazing to perform maintenance. When the Conservatory was opened in 1969/70, people were still allowed to smoke inside and pesticides were common use, which would build make the glazing look like a kind of smog sky. In 1995, they hired a window cleaner for the first time. However, there was no way to maintain or replace any of the 1488 plexiglas panels and in 2015, they replaces all of the panels for 2.5 million Canadian dollars.
In the middle top of the dome is a hexagonal metal dog house with a sound damper underneath, as inside the very apex of the dome lies an airplane propeller. Back in the days, this propeller was used to ventilate all the air inside within three minutes after pesticides had been applied. Now the propeller is not used anymore, as there is a natural convective flow in the dome: the air is brought in at the perimeter, their air conditioning system treats it and then the fans flow it out into the air space.
The single pathway that winds through the exhibit areas forms a kind of circle, leading back to where it started within four minutes. The starting point is the highest point within display area, the lowest point is around three meters lower. The whole space was meant to be landscaped and arranged in a way to give an illusion of more space than actually exists. Taking the time, one can see something different at every step and walk for half an hour. All the dark stone visible inside is the native bay salt from the site, which was used to create some bold landscapes and a waterfall. The water of the latter does not only create a nice soundscape, but also helps to mask the sound of the fan units and the mechanical systems in the building.
The plants are arranged into three, simulated ecological zones: Tropical rainforest, sub-tropical forest and desert/arid. The idea was to combine the horticulture with plants from all around the world, grouped in ways where the cultural practices grew those plants were similar. A kind of habitat exhibit, explaining different kinds of ecosystems without bein strictly adherent to one single geographic location. Among the plants to be found in this tiny jungle are a wax palm from the Colombian Andes or a lady palm from Southern China, now extinct in the wild. Inside a large rock pool is a collection of Koi fish, some of which will live up to fifty years. In the rainforest area, the plants on the forest floor are plants that have to be tolerant of low light and efficiently nurture themselves through their surroundings.
The smalles section of the conservatory is the arid or desert section, located in the brightest area of the dome. However, the humidity of the air itself tends to be too high for many of the desert plants, which don't grow very well and get fungal diseases. Certain ones, however, do thrive, like the Peruvian tree catus which nurtures itself mainly by fog.
Last but not least: a lovely fauna, namely an aviculture. To be found are, amongst other, Carmen and Maria, two green wing macaws who are sisters and joined the conservatory twenty years prior. It was the conservatory's avian veterinarian who raised them. All the birds are carefully selected and never catched in the wild rainforest or anything of that kind. The smaller birds are from bird enthusiasts in the local area who breed them and keep avicultures.
Another fellow bird is Art, a green and blue macaw who lives in this tiny rainforest since 1990 and is guessed to be around fifty years old. Rudy is an African grey parrot, born in 1998. Since the conservatory opened, the conservatory greatly expanded their bird collection, which adds movement and life to the whole space.
Alex Downie additionnaly comments: "The Bloedel Conservatory was built at a time when the optimism for technology and progress was at a zenith. We were also doing great damage to our planet, around that same time Greenpeace was founded. It was a turning point, for even people as privileges as Prentice Bloedel, who realized that something had to be done to make people more aware of what we could lose. There's a whole world of things going on that we're not aware of in our busy lives. We've grown as a city and I think that makes this kind of place even more important. We shouldn't lose track of the need to conserve and should reflect upon the way we can, as individuals, lighten our footprint."
