La secuela invernadero, parte 2 · The greenhouse sequel – Pt.2

Fue duro levantarse a la mañana (con resaca de vino barato) y ver el día gris, lluvioso y con el invernadero partido. ¿Qué hacer? Llevamos los pedazos para adentro y nos dimos cuenta que la esterilla sola se podía mantener de pie. A lo mejor podíamos usar la esterilla misma como estructura y cubrirla con un techo translúcido de plástico. Volvió el optimismo, y de pronto el potencial del nuevo invernadero era muchísimo! Era fácil de armar y desarmar, o sea portátil, barato y fácil de construir y ademas no dependía de una forma fija, podía variar de dimensiones según la necesidad que uno tuviera. Era brillante, creíamos. Entusiasmados, fuimos a comprar una esterilla más larga para poder abarcar más superficie.

It was hard waking in the morning (with cheap white wine hangover) to a grey rainy sky and oour broken greenhouse in the front yard. What to do next? Taking all the pieces inside we realized that the mat by itself could stand by itself. Maybe this alone could provide the structure, and all that needed to happen was to cover it with a plastic sheet. Suddenly we were very excited about the potential for this new greenhouse. It was easy to assemble, cheap and portable. Plus, it didn't need to have a fixed shape, it could take any shape we wanted, according to our needs. It was brilliant, we thought. Filled with optimism, we went to buy a longer mat to cover a bigger area…


Ah, la codicia! Al ser tan largo, ahora la estructura perdía estabilidad. Se podían hacer dos cosas: reducir la altura y atar la esterilla a pesos hechos con botellas con agua y cartones de leche usados como macetas. De esta manera se volvía a estabilizar, pero perdía un poco de flexibilidad a la hora de cambiar de forma…Decidimos seguir adelante.

Oh, the greed! By being so long, the new mat was very unstable. We could only think of two possible solutions: either lower the height to make it stable again, or use planters and plastic bottles filled with water as weights that attached to the structure could help to keep it standing. We opted for this simpler solution, although the versatility of the shape was deeply reduced.


Hacia la noche, habíamos resuelto el tema de la estabilidad y decimos usar como techo provisorio el plástico que se usa acá para cubrir el piso antes de pintar. Tiene la consistencia de una bolsa de plástico – es liviano – y le agregamos unos pesos para que estuviera más tensa la superficie.

By night, we had solved the stability issue and we put the roof using the plastic sheets commonly used here to cover the floor when painting. The plastic is very thin – thinned than most plastic bags – so we had to add small weights to keep tension throughout the surface area.


Mientras tanto los mini-invernaderos con los ladrillos de musgo van lo más contentos.

In the meantime, our mini-greenhouses with their mossbricks looked happy as ever.



A la mañana siguiente pusimos las plantas. Taichi, Mie y Koyomi se habían ido el día anterior a un casamiento y habían pasado la noche en Tokyo. Iba a ser una sorpresa para ellos. Pero cuando llegaron reino el silencio…ni una palabra sobre el pobre invernadero 2. Nos hace acordar a un florero de Alvar Aalto adolescente: grande, torpe y medio feo. Mie y Koyo trajeron unas flores de azalea para embellercerlo un poco al pobre.

The next morning, we moved the plants in. Taichi, Mie and Koyomi had spent overnight at Tokyo because of a wedding party. This was to be a surprise for them. But when they came in, there was only silence… not one word about poor greenhouse, part 2. It remainded us of a pubescent Alvar Aalto vase: ugly, out of scale and awkward. Mie and Koyo brought some azalea flowers to make it a little nicer.



Ese día hubo un taller en Habitable a cargo de Kao Hanada, la mitad del dúo Mumbreeze. Fue un exito y vino mucha gente. Algunos empezaron a tomar el espacio del living para hacer sus muñecos de papel maché y en un momento el pobre invernadero perdió el equilibrio. Al final, molestaba y hubo que sacarlo del medio.

That same day a workshop was held in the afternoon by Kao Hanada, half part of duo Mumbreeze. It was very successful and a lot of people showed up. Some of them had to take part of the living room space to create their paper maché projects. At some point the greenhouse lost it's balance and fell, wetting the floor. It just was in everyone's way and we had to take it out.




¡Gracias a Kao y toda la gente que vino a participar en el taller!

Thanks Kao and everyone who participated in the workshop!

Y con respecto al invernadero 2, seguimos pensando que tiene mucho potencial…Quizás algún día logremos hacerlo funcionar bien. Pero para nosotros, fue hora de pasar al VIVERO PARTE 3.

As for greenhouse, part 2, we still believe it has much potential. But seems this is not the place or time to fully develop it. Some other time, perhaps. It was time to move on to GREENHOSE PART 3.