Glass Biodiversity Map at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The John Hope Gateway (new entrance hallway) to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh opened recently after two years of construction. This massive state-of-the-art, eco friendly building has been designed to create space for travelling exhibitions and showcase some of their worldwide conservation work. It also boasts a Real Life Science studio, shop and restaurant.

“Visitor numbers at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have hit record highs since the opening of the John Hope Gateway in October. More than 65,000 people have toured the £15.7m visitor centre since it opened on Wednesday 7 October. The weekend following the opening was the busiest in the Garden's history, with a total of 8,386 visitors to the Gateway over the two day period” - RBGE website.

The centrepiece of this new hall is a permanent biodiversity exhibition, the focus of which is a huge glass biodiversity map installation, and the map they used for this stunning object is one of our very own custom mapping projects. The huge map is 6 metres high by 30 metres wide and printed on glass.

Photos by Carol Cumming (click to enlarge)

The map really is something different, and it’s hard for photographs to do it justice. If you are in Edinburgh, go along to see the real thing (and enjoy the gardens of course).

Reviews of visits to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh via Google

Keith Moore, Head of Cartographic Services, Collins Geo.