Why the World's Abandoned Greenhouses Are Quietly Being Reclaimed by Nature
A Compendium of Abandoned Greenhouses
A photographic tour of forgotten glass forests around the world — from the Boyce Thompson Institute in Yonkers, abandoned since 1978, to Alton Towers in England and a former commercial rose farm gone wild. In these ruins, plants outgrow the structures built to contain them, and photographers keep documenting how decay turns into something unexpectedly alive. A few, like Villa Maria near Lake Como, have been restored.
Considering the fact that these spaces are built specifically to motivate the growth of plants, I'm sure you could imagine that once left to rot, it might not be doing much "rotting" as it is growing.
- lukan
Mix of beauty and depressing decay.
First thing I am doing after I am rich is probably build a big greenhouse. I don't get why that isn't more of a thing in the northern hemisphere in winter.
Oh and trivia about this description:
"“Cosmic Greenhouse”, somewhere in Germany, exact location not given."
I was somehow not surprised that just googling this gives the exact location.
- empiricus
how do you properly clean after contamination of the soil with broken glass?
- Freak_NL
> “The Steampunk Greenhouse”, photographed by Nicola Berlotti. The location has been kept quiet but seems to be a popular spot for urbex photographers, more incredible shots of the interior can be found here.
My pet peeve as someone who enjoys visiting abandoned places occasionally, but is not part of some s3cr3t clique that hoards the details of cool spots.
I get the reflex to preciously guard the location of a beautiful place, but none of these places are really secret. Locals know of them, and knowledge of any interesting place will have spread all over the internet. So what you get is some folk selling databases of urbex places, and some folk acting as if you need to prove your worthiness to even get a hint of where it might be.
And it is all completely pointless.
Vandalism is a problem for many urbex sites. But vandalism is not caused by photographers, explorers, and kinksters¹, although plenty of people would do well to study the basic leave-no-traces-but-memories philosophy. Vandalism in lost places comes in four types:
* Tagging every surface with spray paint (so graffiti, but without any artistic pretence). This is done by local bored kids who already know the place is there.
* Fly tipping (dumping garbage to avoid paying for the privilege). This is done by local assholes who already know the place is there.
* Breaking stuff, starting a fire. Again, locals. Mostly kids or young adults, who already know the place is there.
* Property developers buying the place up and […]