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Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

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Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

Iconic Glass Structures: The Botanical Garden of Curitiba

Periodically, we look at iconic glass structures. Today, we’ll take a look at The Botanical Garden of Curitiba in Curitiba in the Brazilian state of Parana. The Botanical Garden of Curitiba is relatively new. It opened its doors in 1991. The Botanical Garden, also known as Jardim Botânico Fanchette Rischbiete, is designed to resemble a French royal garden, such as the one at Versailles, and features waterfalls and fountains, nestled among neatly manicured hedges and angular stone walking paths.

Glass greenhouse modeled after Crystal Palace in London

The greenhouse was designed by architect Abraão Assad, who was inspired by the Crystal Palace in London. The soaring glass structure is visible from the main entrance, and is situated to catch the rising and setting Sun. Even though it is not nearly as large as the Crystal Palace, the greenhouse is impossible to miss! The building consists of a metal and glass structure, with three separate silos. The white metalwork serves as a decorative frame for the glass in the greenhouse, creating vibrant geometric patterns. The Gardens is on a significant plot of land, and contains a manmade forest dedicated to the region’s native plants.

The Garden is also the site of the Museum of Franz Krajcberg. Franz Krajcberg was an environmentalist who was passionate about conservation. The Museum is dedicated to conservation education, and features classrooms, exhibit spaces and materials to inform visitors about the importance of conservation and the role of the Garden in that mission. The Museum is also a research facility. It holds a reference collection of native Brazilian flora, including samples from Brazil’s endangered rain forests, and botanists from around the world come to the Museum to study rain forest flora.

Iconic glass structures - the Palm House, Gothenburg Sweden

The Palm House, Gothenburg, Sweden

The Botanical Garden of Curitiba isn’t the only garden inspired by the Crystal Palace. The Palm House in Sweden, which opened in 1878, is also modeled after the Crystal Palace. The first Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park as a temporary structure to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. It proved to be such a popular attraction that the original building was torn down and rebuilt as a permanent structure on what is now called Crystal Palace Park. The recreated building re-opened in 1854 at the intersection of four boroughs in London, and stood until 1936, when it was destroyed by a fire. It was razed and was not rebuilt. In 2014, a Chinese developer announced ambitious plans to rebuild Crystal Palace on its former site, but the Bromley council, which owns the land, could not come to terms with the developer on crucial issues related to the building, and the plan was scrapped.

If you’re looking for inspiration for a glass decorating project, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit, The Botanical Garden at Curitiba, Curitiba, Parana Brazil: Marcio Cabral de Moura , via Flickr.com
Photo Credit, Palm House, Gothenburg, Sweden: David Jones, via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

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Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

Iconic Glass Structures: Louvre Pyramid in Paris

If you’re planning to go to Paris before June 27, you should know that you won’t be able to see the iconic glass pyramid structure outside the world-famous Louvre Museum. While the museum is temporarily closed due to flooding, and art lovers fear for the safety of the Louvre’s priceless collection, the Glass Pyramid in front of the building is doing just fine. You just can’t see it.

The Museum invited Paris street artist JR to wrap the Glass Pyramid in the medium of his choice. JR took life-sized photograph of the Louvre, in black and white, and applied them to the front facing panel of the Glass Pyramid. With JR’s help, look directly at the Glass Pyramid and all you’ll see is the Louvre as it looked before the Pyramid’s arrival in 1984.

Glass Pyramid was designed by I.M. Pei

The Louvre Pyramid was commissioned in 1984 by then-President Francois Mitterrand, and was designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei. I.M. Pei is known for his architectural designs; he also designed the Kennedy Library in Boston, the Dallas City Hall, the Hancock Tower in Boston and the National Gallery East in Washington, D.C. The Glass Pyramid was created to address traffic flow problems at the Museum’s entrance, and sits on top of a welcoming lobby. The Glass Pyramid is the first structure to greet nearly 5 million visitors from around the world annually. The lobby underneath the Glass Pyramid is being renovated, in order to accommodate a growing number of visitors.

The Louvre itself started out as a medieval fortress, built in the 1200’s. In the 1400’s, it was converted to a royal palace, and in the mid-1500s, most of the original portion of the building was razed and rebuilt. The Glass Pyramid sits in front of the Cour Carrre, the oldest portion of the Museum, and the portion of the building that was replaced in the mid-1500s.

The number of glass panes is controversial. When the Glass Pyramid first opened, official Museum literature and news reports of the time said the piece had 666 panes of glass, a figure that was worked into Dan Brown’s fictional work The Da Vinci Code. The Museum later corrected the figure to 672. According to the designer, the Glass Pyramid has 689 glass panels that are shaped either like a rhombus or a triangle.

The number of panes of glass in the Glass Pyramid is far from the only controversy the structure has created. More than 30 years after its construction, the Glass Pyramid still invites passionate discussions about the combination of modern glass construction against a French Renaissance background, the cultural differences of modern France, the symbolism of a pyramid and of course, it’s cost to build (about USD$16M).

If you’d like to decorate glass, you don’t need to hire a Parisian street artist. Glassprimer™ glass paint can do the trick! If you’d like some inspiring ideas about decorating glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Colin Cushman , via FreeImages.com