With the opening of the John Hope Gateway Centre, the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh has acquired a world-class biodiversity and visitor centre that is already drawing the crowds. The Gateway project, housed at the Gardens' West Gate on Arboretum Place, is home to a restaurant, shop, science studio, interactive media, plant sales, education rooms and exhibitions. It's the perfect destination for a weekend stroll or family day out.

The centre, named after a Regius Keeper of the Gardens from the 18th century, offers the chance to find out more about biodiversity loss and climate change in a contemporary building that is itself a pioneering example of 'green' construction. The liberal use of wood and stone as building materials gives the Gateway a natural feeling in keeping with its mission of promoting the importance of the environment. Exhibits inside the building explore further the need to use resources in a sustainable way; they also look at the theme of biodiversity loss and climate change. On display are preserved plant specimens from the Gardens' national collections.

Currently showing at the Gateway is the Wych Elm Project, an exhibition displaying pieces of furniture made from an elm in the Gardens that was felled in 2003 after it became a danger to the public. The exhibition aims to celebrate the wych elm and highlight its potential loss; the tree is fast disappearing from Edinburgh's streets and parks due to the ravages of Dutch Elm disease. The only elm native to Britain, wych elm is also one of just twenty trees native to Scotland.

The pieces of furniture created by Scottish craftsmen using timber from the fallen wych elm have a wonderfully distinctive grain (often hard for furniture makers to work with) that gives them unusual depth of texture and character. The exhibition is all the more poignant for the fact that elm timber may not be around for much longer, unless a way is found to halt Dutch Elm disease.

Those of you with children will find the Gateway the perfect place to indulge budding scientists, who can have a shot at examining plant specimens under one of several powerful microscopes available for public use.  John Hope, for whom the building was named, might not have known about interactive media back in the 18th century, but one senses he would have approved.

John Hope Gateway Centre, open Saturday/Sunday from 9am, Monday to Friday from 9.30am, closing daily from October to March at 6pm and from April to September at 7pm.

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