Retail company Amazon has completed a set of glass orbs filled with "cloud forest" gardens for its headquarters in Seattle, providing work areas for employees and green space for the public.
The Spheres comprises a trio on connected glass domes, located in the centre of Amazon-occupied office towers in Downtown Seattle.

Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, officially opened the project on 29 January 2018, by giving a voice command to the company's digital assistant, Alexa.
The structure was designed by American architecture firm NBBJ, which gained approval for the project in 2013.

"This particular design was chosen due to its natural occurrence in nature and as a nod to historic conservatories, like Kew Gardens [in southwest London]," said an announcement on Amazon's blog. Similar projects also include the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, and the cooled conservatories at Singapore's Gardens by the Bay. In Seattle, the three glazed orbs are constructed from 620 tons of steel and supported on a thick concrete base. All three units share an open-plan indoor area that is filled with thousands of plants, which can be viewed from multiple vantage points.

Of the trio, the largest "sphere" measures approximately 90 feet (27 metres) tall and 130 feet (39 metres) in diameter. The entire structure is covered in 2,643 panes of clear glass, tessellated to form a seemingly curved surface.
The facade's geometric pattern is derived from a shape found in natur...