Glasshouses - history, residences and growing houses
Glass-houses have been used for growing plants in a controlled environment since ancient Roman times but, the most famous glass house was designed by architect Philip Johnson in 1949 to use as his residence. Today it is a national landmark, open to the public. Another glass residence, the Farnsworth house in Chicago, was built by architect Lugwig Mies van der Rohe in the 1940s for Dr. Edith Farnsworth. It is also a national landmark and open for tours. Block Building at Nelson-Adkins Museum Steven Holl’s addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ( www.nelson-atkins.org ) in Kansas City, MO, consists of five interconnected frosted glass boxes in the sculpture park. At night the Block Building resembles paper lanterns in the grass. The glasshouses used to grow plants rather than to house people and art, date back to ancient Egypt where they were used to grow grapes as early as 4,000 B.C. By 300 B.C. glasshouses were heated by manure pits and by 92 B.C. in Italy, ...