This glass and metal-framed structure contains a tropical rain forest, mangrove wetlands, a fog desert, savannah grassland, and an ocean with a coral reef. Taken together, these architectural and engineering marvels stand as working symbols of our current and complex position within the natural world.īuilt in the late 1980s to study complex closed systems, Biosphere 2 was designed as an airtight replica of the Earth’s environment. At the same time, however, they support scientific observation and research on the plants and animals housed under these ‘natural conditions’ that require human control of temperature, humidity, irrigation, insects, and weeds to cultivate otherwise impossible environments and species. These vivaria are enclosed environments where plants are grown amidst carefully constructed representations of the natural world to entertain and educate visiting tourists. The photographs in the series Terraria Gigantica: The World under Glass frame the world’s largest enclosed landscapes as possible impossibilities: Biosphere 2’s ocean in the Arizona desert, the Henry Doorly Zoo’s desert in the Great Plains of Nebraska, Eden Project’s tropical rain forest in notoriously gray and cool Cornwall, England, and the high-elevation Cloud Forest at sea-level in Singapore. November 1 – December 6, Hours: M-Th 12pm-7pm, F 12pm-4pm Red Door Gallery, Heuser Art Center Third Floor
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