The Leaf — Assiniboine Park Conservatory

Winnipeg, Canada, North America

Completed · Cultural · Botanical Conservatory · Continental · 2022

A large botanical conservatory in Winnipeg that must maintain tropical growing conditions through winters reaching −40°C, using a high-performance ETFE cushion roof system and geothermal ground-source heat exchange to dramatically reduce heating energy. The biomorphic structure mimics leaf venation in its steel geometry.

Innovation highlights

• ETFE pneumatic cushion roof providing thermal performance in subarctic winter conditions
• geothermal ground-source heat pump array reducing fossil heating load
• biomorphic steel structure derived from leaf venation structural logic
• climate-separated tropical and temperate growing zones within one envelope

Client / Developer

Assiniboine Park Conservancy

Architect

groupA / Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB)

Engineer

Thornton Tomasetti / Smith + Andersen

Type

Botanical Conservatory

#ETFE #geothermal #extreme climate #botanical #biomorphic structure #passive solar

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