Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Visitor Centre and garden intertwined in tender embrace

The Royal Botanic Garden, in Edinburgh, is a world-renowned centre for understanding, protecting and preserving plants for a sustainable future. The John Hope Gateway is a threshold into the world of the Botanic Garden, as well to the visitor facilities and event spaces. It houses exhibitions, indoor and outdoor education spaces, a media studio, shop, a restaurant and a new biodiversity garden. A porous ground floor allows visitors to enter and leave the building from different points and flow freely into different areas of the building. A curved glass wall looks out into the garden, taking the interpretation story of the garden into the landscape.

The landscape proposals for the new gateway of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh integrate the new Visitors’ Centre into the setting of the botanic gardens. The height, shape and massing of the building respond to the existing contours of the site. The relatively low position of the building reduces the visual impact from within the garden. Conflict with valuable existing trees from the botanical collection has been carefully avoided. A formal treatment of the entrance and sloped promenade into the garden provides a clear sense of hierarchy and direction. The space serves to educate users within the internal and external spaces of the building, and within the landscape temporary exhibitions can take place. The interrelation between building and landscape allows to experience aspects of biodiversity from both interior and exterior perspective, The sloping site displays a ‘theatre of plants’ embraced by a curvilinear glazed façade which opens views from both the exhibition space within and roof terrace above. A series of cascading water pools create a distinct foreground and reflects light into the building. The biodiversity garden, developed in collaboration with horticulturist Dave Mitchell, provides a quieter and sensual experience with an array of botanical species and winding pathways cutting into the hillside. The biodiversity garden is organised along the principles of the evolution of plants; it contains over 500 different species from many different families, with a wide diversity of leaves and flower. The aim is to presents biodiversity as a sense of wonder about the beauty and value of plants.