About the Archive

Container Archive is a container gardening archive built in the spirit of modernist architecture and industrial design — a slow, deliberate record of vessels and the plants they hold. Each entry is filed under its true material and dimension, the way an architect keeps a design catalogue of forms and proportions.

The Concrete Manner

Following the principle that form follows foliage, every vessel receives a material designation — CONCRETE, TERRACOTTA, STEEL, GLASS, or CERAMIC — placing it within a kingdom of texture and weight. The material is not decoration; it is the address by which a vessel is found again, in this archive or any other.

The Cabinets

The archive is arranged by material, each cabinet holding vessels of a shared texture. A vessel may be a CONCRETE cast — raw and mineral — or a TERRACOTTA pot, fired and earthen; a STEEL planter, powder-coated and cold; a GLASS terrarium, transparent and framed; a CERAMIC glazed bowl, heavy and composed. Catalogue numbers follow the form CA-1000, the dimension code its scale: S, M, L, XL, or CUSTOM.

The Method

Each sheet carries a label: the plant's common name in heavy sans-serif, the Latin binomial in italic, the material in capitals, the designer's initials, the date of casting. The completeness score marks how much of the plant is documented — root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit. A score of ninety and above is a fine sheet indeed.

Visit the Cabinets

The cabinets stand open. Wander the index, filter by material or dimension, or join the monograph subscription to receive a design dossier each season. The editor files new vessels regularly — the archive grows the way a planter grows, by patient tending.