The floral arts of Japan made a huge impact on the Western world during the Meiji Restoration. Azuma Makoto’s Paludarium Shigeru reinterprets the complex and fascinating history of the transportation of exotic plants that was facilitated through the creation of the Wardian Case, a glass enclosure for plants. The Paludarium Shigeru is the direct successor of this nineteenth-century technology.

The Paludarium Shigelu is the inheritor of the Wardian Case technology that first enabled the safe transportation of plants across the oceans. It was a revolution in the shipment of flora. One of the maiden voyages of a Wardian Case was in 1833, when ferns and grasses were transported from Britain to Australia.

The Paludarium Shigelu is a biosphere for a plant that beautifully and intentionally creates a tension between the protective technology and the solitary plant. The machine provides air, light and water to the plant but in doing so cuts the plant off from the nature to which it belongs.