Tropenhaus Kleve (Rhine-Waal University tropical greenhouse)

Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Rhein-Waal) was founded on 1 May 2009 with two sites, Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort. In Kleve the district built a new campus on the town's former harbour, with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia investing 126 million euros: nineteen buildings set out on both banks of the Spoy canal, the whole scheme being completed in July 2013.

The tropical greenhouse, the Tropenhaus, opened there in 2012 as a laboratory of the Faculty of Life Sciences. Built first for teaching and research, it gradually opened its doors to the public: guided tours run by students, a regular place in the 'Offene Gärten im Kleverland' open-garden days and, in summer 2022, the first drop-in family tours offered by the greenhouse's sustainability team. It also hosts participants in Germany's voluntary ecological year (FÖJ).

The bananas grown under glass have yielded more than 850 kg of fruit since the first harvest in 2013, according to the Lower Rhine tourist board. By 2022 the total number of visitors since opening was put at nearly 20,000 by one source and at over 20,000 by another, with the four annual open days alone drawing more than 3,000 people.

The Tropenhaus occupies a square building 25 metres on each side, set beside the Wendehafen, the turning basin of the old harbour, between the Wissensspeicher - a former brick warehouse converted into the university library - and the student canteen. The complex covers more than 600 m² and brings together a seminar room, workrooms, a planting and experimentation room and a large glazed greenhouse.

The glasshouse is divided into four experimental chambers used for teaching and research and a large tropical chamber open to visitors, kept at between 25 and 30 °C. A climate computer controls temperature and humidity, so that growing conditions can be varied and distinct climate zones simulated for different crops.

The sources consulted do not name the architect of the greenhouse itself. The campus as a whole was designed by nps tchoban voss (Hamburg) and Hülsmann Thieme Minor (Kleve), with landscape architects Prof. Junker + Kollegen. Around the building, almost 3,000 m² of gardens carry the greenhouse's themes outdoors.

The tropical chamber concentrates on useful plants from the tropics and subtropics. Visitors find cocoa, coffee, cultivated and wild bananas, sugar cane, pineapple, a cinnamon tree, jackfruit, papaya, avocado, kaffir lime, lemon, a rubber tree, Moroccan mint and a baobab, alongside some fifty further species according to the regional tourist board.

The three demonstration gardens around the greenhouse hold more than 250 different plants, among them kiwi, elder, apple and nectarine trees, sea buckthorn, tulips and cereal crops, as well as an orchard. A fruit-tree nature trail, an apiary of four bee colonies and a barefoot trail devoted to soil and scent complete an ensemble focused squarely on cultivated plants.

The greenhouse stands on the Kleve campus of Rhine-Waal University (building 14), beside the Spoy canal. It is not open continuously: it can be seen on the four annual 'Offene Gärten im Kleverland' open days, on free guided tours arranged for groups on request, or on the family tours held during the summer holidays. In 2022 the open days ran from June to November, sometimes with art installations and live music. Allow about an hour for the tropical chamber and the gardens, then continue with a walk along the canal that forms the spine of the campus.