A team of students and researchers from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has designed a prototype Solar Greenhouse in Barcelona, Spain, to generate its own energy and produce food without emitting greenhouse gasses.
The project was developed during a masters program at the IAAC. The students, led by architects Vicente Guallart and Daniel Ibáñez, built the two-story greenhouse in two months.
The structure, constructed in Barcelona’s Serra de Collserola Natural Park, is intended to prove how humanity’s most basic needs could be provided in a more ecological way. The aim is that the system can be replicated and used in both rural and urban areas. The 130-square-foot two-story Solar Greenhouse is constructed from “Aleppo Pine that was milled, dried, processed, and pressed into laminated wooden elements on-site at Valldaura,” explains the team.
The heliomorphic “diamond” shaped glass roof of the greenhouse allows the plants to directly absorb sunlight and its semi-transparent solar panels generate the energy to power the entire structure. And LED and UV lights help grow vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, and eggplant at night.
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