Biggest glass house will be truly green

Published on Saturday 17 October 2009 19:50

BRITAIN'S biggest greenhouse is to be created in Scotland in an ambitious plan to boost the fortunes and reputation of the nation's main botanical garden.

The 25 million development to be carried out at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is tipped to become Scotland's answer to the Eden Project in Cornwall.

The venture, which is expected to take up to a decade to come to fruition, will mean the existing glasshouses, which date back to the 1960s, will be dismantled. They will be replaced by a striking new eco-friendly complex to house the vast plant collections and research facilities.

It will be built next to the Garden's listed Victorian temperate palm house, which dates back to 1858 and was refurbished four years ago, and the older Tropical Palm House, which was built in 1834.

The Scottish Government has already agreed to pay 25,000 to help get a feasibility study under way into the replacement for the climatically controlled glasshouses.

Experts at RBGE, which last week officially opened its new John Hope Gateway visitor centre, are expected to travel the world to study the latest energy-saving technology being deployed in modern botanical centres, with a view to emulating the latest low-carbon production techniques in Edinburgh.

The new glasshouse, which would have a much bigger capacity than the ageing structures it will replace, is also expected to help generate thousands of new visitors to the Botanics. It will boast a new education centre, conference facilities, lecture hall and plaza terrace for delegates overlooking the garden itself.

Alan Bennell, the RBGE's head of visitor services, said the existing glasshouses are now proving to be a huge drain on resources and are "approaching their sell-by date."

He said: "We have some very fine glasshouses here, including the temperate palm house, which is still the tallest glasshouse in Britain.

"Our range of other glasshouses features some very fine post-war architecture, but there is no double-glazing in any of them. The heating system dates back to the 1960s, so it is hugely expensive for us to run, even though they house some of our most important biological collections.

"When you think about the carbon footprint in these buildings they are obviously not the most sustainable way of doing things."

The Botanics' history stretches back to 1670, when a garden was created next to Holyrood Palace for the cultivation of medicinal plants.

Such was its success, the garden moved to the area now occupied by platform 11 at Waverley Station, before going on to Leith Walk, and eventually, in 1823, to its present location in Inverleith Row.

By the 1960s, most of the glasshouses at the garden had fallen into disrepair and modern structures were built to host a greater variety of plants. The "Front Range" glasshouses were filled with topsoil that had been removed from the construction site of the Forth Road Bridge, which was being built at the same time.

The 16m John Hope Gateway is the first new building created at the Botanics, which already attracts 600,000 visitors a year, for more than 40 years and was some six years in the planning stages. It is hoped the new glasshouse complex will become a striking new landmark which will blend into the landscape as well as with listed buildings, such as Inverleith House and the Caledonian Hall at the Botanics.

Bennell said project managers would be looking at the kind of new facilities that have been built around the world and what kind of technology they are using. One example is the recently erected research glasshouses at the New York Botanical Garden.

"We wouldn't want to replace the glasshouses with big barns; we want something of a suitable stature which will be a major new focal point."

Cllr Tom Buchanan, Edinburgh's tourism leader, said: "The Royal Botanic Garden is already one of Edinburgh's most popular visitor attractions and, naturally, I welcome these plans, which can only add to its world-class reputation."

The Eden Project is a lottery-funded attraction near the Cornish town of St Austell, which includes the world's largest greenhouse. The project attracts around 1.1 million visitors a year.