Unigro, a specialist provider of controlled environments to universities and other research institutes, has won the contract to provide a state-of-the-art quarantine facility for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The project, due to be commissioned next March, will provide a facility to replace Kew Gardens’ existing Quarantine House, built in 1989.
Unigro, in response to Kew’s challenging and detailed Employers Requirements is designing and building contained chambers within the facility – individual, isolated bays with precise controllable climates for temperature, relative humidity, day length and light levels. While the design has been developed with containment as the top priority, sustainability issues have been addressed wherever possible.
“We are hugely excited about this project. Our brief was to provide highly contained facilities, which not only work in a sustainable way, but also have the capability for flexible expansion and increased functionality for the future,” said Keith Hamp, commercial director at Unigro. “We look forward to providing Kew with a complex that will be worthy of its worldwide reputation.”
Dr Nigel Taylor, Curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew said: “We are delighted to be working with Unigro on this project. The company has long experience of designing and building quarantine facilities, understood our needs and offered the best design and build package at a competitive price.”
