Next door, the technology does the opposite

The Umbracle is the Hivernacle's clever opposite. Built between 1883 and 1887 by Josep Amargós from a Fontserè project, it was designed to shelter tropical and subtropical plants from too much Mediterranean sun. Instead of sealing plants behind glass, its iron frame and slatted roofs manufacture shade, airflow and filtered light. That makes the two buildings worth separate stops: one traps and manages warmth and light; the other reduces them. Step back until you can read the long roof profile, then move closer and watch how the slats break direct sunlight into bands. A nineteenth-century park was not only scenery. It contained environmental technology tuned to different botanical problems.