A room within a room for nature. Designer duo Atelier 2+ have created a greenhouse that is small enough for indoor use but large enough to house a miniature garden.
The Greenhouse is a design object with artistic ambitions, a sculpture that makes room for nature. Green plants are a neglected area which call for innovative design solutions; precisely what Greenhouse offers. Atelier 2+ place greenery on a pedestal and protect it with glass as the delicate and beautiful item that it deserves to be — even in public places.
Worapong Manupipatpong and Ada Chirakranont are Atelier 2+, a Bangkok-based design studio. The duo studied at KMITL in Bangkok and at Konstfack in Stockholm and their designs show that Scandinavian Design is a concept that is not limited by nationality. In their work they seek to erase the boundaries between architecture and furniture, art and design.
Worapong Manupipatpong and Ada Chirakranont originally created Greenhouse for the magazine Wallpaper’s annual Handmade Exhibition. The Greenhouse was their way of interpreting the concept of ‘handmade’ as a term that does not just concern the manufacture of the item but also the way that it is cherished. Which is to say the care which we often afford to plants. And this is how Greenhouse should be viewed: the physical expression of a broader use of the term ‘handmade’.
“Greenhouse is a product of our stay in Sweden,” Worapong Manupipatpong explains. “When we were living in Sweden we felt the need to get closer to nature and to make room inside our dwelling for the nature that surrounds us.”
“But,” they point out, “perhaps the size of Greenhouse encourages people to create miniature worlds because it is not large enough for people merely to plant just anything in it. It makes demands on the user, perhaps requiring green fingers or the sensitive touch of a sculptor.”