The Green Planet Museum

Project details

Client: Besix

Consultant: Buro Happold Consulting Engineers

Architect: U+A Architects

From the forest floor to the tips of the canopy, explore The Green Planet, an incredible indoor vertical rainforest filled with living plants, animals, and birds. This indoor tropical rainforest stands for a unique botanical museum that brings you close to nature and animals while learning more about the environment and the world we live in.

The four-story bio-dome is built around the largest indoor, man-made, and life-sustaining tree in the world, which supports the plants and animals living around it. This giant tree supports many of the tropical life forms that are part of the recreational bio-dome. Visitors can start at the top and walk to the bottom along with platforms and bridges, meeting the exotic creatures face to face along the way.

The view looking down from one of the ramps adjacent to the tree shows the path that leads visitors through the exotic biome. Visitors can feel what life is like in a tropical habitat because the facility regulates the temperature and humidity levels of the venue to keep the creatures comfortable, which wasn’t an easy task for the architects.

The team was faced with a huge technical challenge as it recreated an environment that would support over 3,000 species. The biome is able to sustain itself without power or water from humans. It collects and stores rainwater and then produces its own rain, fog and mist to naturally cool the environment within.

Calculations right down to the unique type of Curtain Wall glass used and the orientation of the building are taken into consideration for construction.