The 19th Century Greenhouse in the English Garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta. Drawings and Surveys

Abstract

The proposed research itinerary is focused on the study of the 19th century Greenhouse, an architectural artefact created at the behest of Nicola Terracciano at the end of the 19th century inside the English Garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta, with reading and investigation operations on the architecture and the surrounding territory. Before illustrating the architectural artefact taken as research model, it is important to underline its significant functional characteristic, as it was created with the aim of studying, acclimatizing and reproducing a series of exotic and rare plant species that in the Bourbon era were imported and planted inside the English Garden. It represents, in fact, one of the first examples of buildings used for the shelter of plants and is an important testimony of the structures that at the beginning of the nineteenth century began to appear in the main Italian gardens. The 19th Greenhouse has, therefore, a great value in the relationship between architecture and landscape as it was born in function of it. The purpose of this contribution is to propose graphic elaborations of the current reality and graphic reconstructions, through the theoretical foundations of scientific survey and representation, with the aim of proposing an innovative management model for the enhancement, protection and conservation of the architectural and vegetational heritage, using innovative technological instruments.