Sunder Nursery to get ₹10cr ‘Garden House’ replicating desert, tropical habitats in India

Delhi's Sunder Nursery will soon feature a two-storey "Garden House" showcasing India's desert and tropical ecosystems, enhancing education and conservation efforts.

Delhi’s Sunder Nursery is set to gain a striking new addition – a two-storey “Garden House” that aims to bring the ecosystems of India’s deserts and tropical forests under a single, carefully controlled roof. Conceived as a greenhouse-like structure inspired by iconic indoor gardens in the United Kingdom – predominantly London’s Kew Gardens – the project seeks to blend education, conservation and design in one immersive space.

The Garden House will also include a small nursery and a café.

The structure will be built in the northeastern corner of Sunder Nursery near the boundary wall it shares with the Delhi zoo and it will act as an added extension of the existing 30-acre wide micro-habitat zone of the Sunder Nursery.

Officials at the Sunder Nursery said work on the project has started recently and will be built over the next two to three years. It is being executed by architect Ashok B Lall and will be built at a cost of ₹10 crores.

“Sunder Nursery already has an arboretum and micro-habitat zones. This will form a part of the micro-habitat zone and represent desert and tropical flora, essentially, replicating habitats of places like Kerala and Rajasthan. The aim is to teach students and show them other Indian forest and natural habitats from other parts of the country, but here in Delhi itself,” said Ratish Nanda, CEO at the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which manages Sunder Nursery.

Nanda said the Garden House is expected to cater to close to 500,000 school children every year and will include an exhibition section, alongside a small cafe and nursery too.

At Sunder Nursery’s 30 acre micro-habitat zone, Delhi’s river, ridge and marshy landscapes have been recreated already, but outdoors. “The proposed Garden House will display tropical and desert flora and thus be the first such facility in Delhi. Of the 13,000 parks in Delhi, none facilitate proper understanding of ecology for school children and nature enthusiasts.,” Nanda said, stating the inspiration for the plan includes the Kew Gardens in London, the Eden Project in Cornwall (UK), the National Botanic Garden Of Wales and the Royal Horticulture, Society Garden (UK).

The technical brief of the project mentions three components of the inner green house building. This includes a sheltered area for succulents, where low humidity will be maintained. A second section for tropical plants, where at least 60% humidity will be maintained. The area will be again sheltered and is described to represent the middle to understorey section of a tropical forest. The third section will focus on ‘dense tropical tall plants’ and a water or wet zone.

“This section will be open to the sky, but with protection from winter winds and hot-day summer winds. A warm-humid environment will be maintained. A natural water pool may be connected to the arboretum water or stream,” the technical brief states. The plan includes open-to-sky courtyard, a small nursery and even a cafe. The second storey will predominantly consist of ramps, to allow visitors to get a better view from the top.

“To help sustain itself, the Garden House will also host a small café with both indoor-outdoor seating overlooking the microhabitat zone along with a shop for plant-related material,” the proposal states.

The structure will meanwhile have tensile roofing and glazed sections, with focus on allowing natural lighting through. The roof will be designed to receive winter sunlight, while providing adequate shading from the harsher, summer sun. Nanda said there will also be tertiary air ducts to naturally cool the Garden House.

“The tensile fabric roof diffuses natural light indoors. Cool breeze rising from a series of underground earth tunnels will meanwhile escape from the tall vaulted roofs – providing thermal comfort to visitors while protecting showcased flora from Delhi’s harsh seasonal variations,” he added, stating the plan is being executed in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing of Urban Affairs and the company Havells.