Sign up to our newsletter:

Greenhouses: Technical, scientific, historic and teaching aspects

21 to 24 October 2008

LYON, FRANCE

The ‘Le Jardin botanique’ of Lyon and the association of botanical gardens of France and French-speaking countries has organised an international conference about the greenhouses of botanical gardens.

Greenhouses and botanical gardens

Since the end of the 18th century, greenhouses have constituted an important tool for botanical gardens: they are not only the point of release of plants from voyages of exploration but also places of amazement and curiosity for the discovery of unknown plants.

Indeed, in the second half of the 19th century, in the same movement which saw the construction of the large urban parks in Paris, many greenhouses for botanical collections were built, often in large urban parks or botanical gardens such as the greenhouses of Bordeaux (1856), Rennes (1862), the Large Greenhouses of Lyon (between 1877 and 1881) and those of Nantes (1895).

Today, this inheritance, fragile because of their building materials, glass and iron, requires restoration. Also, the purpose and the functions of greenhouses must be reassessed in the current context - safeguarding of biodiversity and the education of the public to sustainable development.

Answers to current problems

Botanical gardens have a major role to play in the dissemination of information concerning the environment. Furthermore, greenhouses are a spectacular method of presentation of unknown plants in our regions and make it possible to understand the real threats which concern the world of flora.

Starting with concrete examples and innovative experiments from the botanical gardens of Europe and North America, different topics will be approached at the conference:

  • the role of the greenhouses
  • their historic presentation
  • the management of the various particular flora collections (Népenthès, succulent plants, etc),
  • education about the environment,
  • the restoration of the greenhouses
  • putting in place of respectful technical solutions for the environment.

This last topic is particularly current: it would be inconsistent to educate the public about environmental protection without applying the same principles of reduction and saving of water and energy to the management of the collections.

For which, by which?

 

Multi-field, this conference is well aimed towards botanists, scientists, technicians, engineers, garden historians and academics.

It will bring together personnel in charge of French and foreign botanical gardens (National Natural History Museum, Bordeaux, Brussels, Lyon…), engineers and technicians specialised in the construction or restoration of greenhouses, private owners and academics.

For further information and registration: +33 4 72 82 47 78 e-mail: linda.soumari@mairie-lyon.fr

The conference will take place inside the chalet du Parc de la Tête d’Or in Lyon. It will also include workshops set to the themes of the greenhouses of the ‘Le Jardin botanique’ of Lyon presented by collection specialists.

Programme of Events (in french)

Registration form (in french)

More information can also be found on Internet sites:
www.jardin-botanique-lyon.com 
www.bgci.org/JBF-fr/

 
Have your say! BGCI Membership Questionnaire 2008
BGCI is striving to improve the services that we provide to our members. We need your help in order to do this. Please take 5 minutes to submit our Membership Questionnaire.