House in Valongo

Written by Omar Dahabra

Location: Porto, Portugal
Year: 2025
Architects: atelier local
Photography by: Francisco AscensĂŁo

Flower Room is an intimate dialogue between elements of nature. Nestled at the intersection of the countryside and the forest in Huizhou, China, it forges an ecological framework of care, becoming a micro-laboratory of symbiosis between plants and insects. Unlike conventional greenhouses that manufacture closed and controlled environments, Flower Room is posited to be open and porous, allowing sunlight to dance, rain to flow, and wind to bring shifts in micro-climate, along with birds, bees, and butterflies to wander within.

Due to the rampant growth of invasive species in the forest, such as climbing plants like bittersweet vine that smother ground-level sunlight, the local ecosystem has been gradually declining. As a temporary installation, Flower Room proposes a possibility for restoring ecological diversity. In its vertical planting racks, native plants are elevated away from invasive species on the ground; flower boxes are positioned at varying heights and orientations, providing an array of microclimates shaped by diverse conditions of light and water. Plants are encouraged to grow and interact at their own paces: some unfurl tender leaves, others bloom and bear fruit, while some accumulate seeds and roots. Flower Room becomes a living stage that constantly unfolds the richness of biodiversity: pollination, seed dispersal, the flight of bees and butterflies, and the foraging and perching of birds, all gathered in this living room for more-than-human species.

Constructed with a lightweight steel frame and framed in modularity, Flower Room presents a high degree of adaptability that sparks a diversity of spatial conditions, allowing it to be replicated on different sites in the future. By enhancing its stability through interlocking components, the installation kisses the ground merely through a few supports, thereby minimizing disturbance to the soil and other ground conditions.

Flower Room is more than an installation of care in temporality—it is a micro-experiment in ecological restoration, a tender conversation with nature. In its small frame, the cycles of life are showcased, magnified, and reimagined, with forces and flows of nature in play. It whispers that ecology does not live only in vast protected lands; even within the footprint of five square meters, life can weave itself together, with abundant love and care. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.atelierlocal.pt + www.divisare.com

Omar Dahabra
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