A design team led by PLandscape and LAAB Architects has brought a rooftop nature conservatory in Hong Kong to life. The Nature Discovery Park will offer a plethora of nature-based learning experiences with a biodiversity museum, an outdoor farm to provide farm-to-table dining, a butterfly garden and more.
The park is found at the center of Hong Kong on the top level of the popular K11 MUSEA shopping mall. The urban location offers city residents (who otherwise would have little to no access to farm life) an opportunity to experience their food in a whole new light. Design-wise, the protective pitched roof and reflection of the crops against glass competes with the city’s skyscrapers, helping to remind Hong Kong’s citizens that the natural world and urban life can coexist.
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At the center of the park is a glass greenhouse encasing an organic hydroponic nursery leading out to an organized, outdoor farm. The structure features steel and aluminum cladding in its frame, with the glass facade included to reduce heat gain and large sliding doors to promote natural ventilation. All door handles, pendant lamps and tables are made of sustainably harvested wood. In order to reduce construction waste, the greenhouse was prefabricated and installed onsite.
In addition to hosting farm-to-table meals with the ingredients grown onsite, the park offers tours, nature explorations and education programs that focus on subjects such as biodiversity and sustainability. Guests of the farm-to-table restaurant have the option of exploring the gardens and learning more about their food’s growing conditions and urban farming in general before enjoying a meal.
The museum itself features an aquarium designed to reflect the marine species that would be present in the nearby Victoria Harbor without pollution. The building features a rooftop butterfly garden growing pollinator-friendly plants to attract Hong Kong’s diverse populations of butterflies.
Photography by Otto Ng of LAAB Architects via v2com
