Unlike the greenhouses at Kew, however, the Spheres’ plant collections are interspersed with the trappings of the modern tech office: stylish ergonomic furniture, informal meeting spaces, an upscale doughnut shop.
The Spheres, a series of three nested, bubble-like structures that rise more than four stories in the heart of Amazon’s corporate campus in Seattle, are filled with exotic and rare plants, more than 400 species in total. Was it possible to capture the sense of quiet inspiration? What would it look like?īezos now has his answer. He wondered if an office could have the same effect. The American CEO of Amazon, and officially the wealthiest person on the planet, found the botanic garden bewitching. More than 300 years after Capel planted his first fir, Jeff Bezos found himself meditating on Kew’s legacy. The gardens draw more than 2.1 million visitors a year. Today, Kew is considered both the “cradle of the English landscape movement” and a locus of cutting-edge botanical knowledge. The world-renowned botanic garden and research institute now boasts more than 30,000 types of plants housed in a series of ornate, Victorian-era greenhouses and ornamental gardens. In 1772, the estate was joined with the adjacent Richmond Gardens, and in 1840, Kew Gardens, as it was then known, was conveyed to the public. It was said that Capel’s gardens were “furnished with the best fruit trees in England.” Evergreens, oranges, flowering viburnum, Pistacia lentiscus from the shores of the Mediterranean.
He built greenhouses for species that craved warmer climates, and his gardens burst with exotic flowers, fruit trees, and rare dwarf cultivars. But Capel’s plant collections were unusual. Capel and his wife moved into the grand manor house at what was then known as Kew Park and, as was popular at the time, began developing a series of formal gardens. In 1659, Lord Henry Capel, a member of England’s Parliament, inherited a coveted estate along the River Thames near London.
FROM THE JANUARY 2019 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE. Inside the years-long effort to design the world’s least traditional workplace.