always sunshine

What is the quintessential Dutch building? Long ago it might have been the windmill set in a watery landscape, or maybe the townhouse topped by a stepped façade overlooking a canal. In the modern era it might very well be the glasshouse, where everything from tomatoes to tulips are grown on farms that function like vast factories. The shelves of our supermarket are stocked with the produce of the Dutch glasshouse, a standardised building that creates a uniform climate for a system of agriculture that maximizes production. The result: standardised products. No spring or autumn, but constant conditions all year round. Yet this indoor world feels outdoors too. The sky above and the landscape all around are ever present, drawn inside through the glass. Remove the agriculture and people can enjoy the perfect antidote to the dull Dutch winter. Pull up a deckchair and let the gaze reach to the horizon of a landscape as cultivated as the interior landscape trapped inside this glazed shell.