The John Hope Gateway is a pioneer in modern wood construction
Arriving early at the West Gate of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, I stared through the gate and wondered, who designed this marvellous mix of wood and glass? I found that the John Hope Gateway was designed by Cullinan Studio in 2009; today we take this kind of wood construction for granted, but back then it was really cutting edge. Ted Cullinan has also been one of my favourite architects, ever since he visited the School of Architecture in Toronto when I was a student; I was profoundly influenced by his wonderful house. Cullinan has always been of the best practicing sustainable design; Jonathan Glancey of the Guardian once wrote that "Cullinan is proof that an architect can be "green" without being tweedy, embarrassingly "right-on", or plain archaic."But there was marvellous glue-laminated wood (where all the grain goes in the same direction) with wonderful connection details, those dramatic circles of bolts.
And the stair, built up of some kind of laminated veneer, is a wooden wonder.
The building is definitely a product of its time, describing the sustainability features:
Perhaps most obvious is the wind turbine mounted on the green sedum roof – but there are also other renewable energy systems, such as a biomass-fuelled boiler, solar collectors for hot water and photovoltaic panels.
I suppose if you are in a Botanic Garden you have a lot of accessible biomass to burn, but vertical access wind turbines surrounded by trees are not going to spin much. One can complain about sedum roofs not doing much either but hey, this was ten years ago. But other than that, such an inspiring building, a model of sustainable design, a pioneer in modern wood. See much better photos at Cullinan Studio.