The Temperate House conservatory at Kew Gardens in Richmond upon Thames, London has reopened to the public following a five year restoration by Donald Insall Associates.
The London-based firm, which specialises in consulting on historic buildings, was appointed as conservation architects by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2012.

A masterpiece of 19th-century design, the Grade I listed building is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world. Over 190 metres long, the plant house has a rectangular plan, with pitched roofs, stone columns and ribs of wrought iron.
Designed and built by architect Decimus Burton in 1860, the Temperate House is home to 10,000 plants, many of which are rare or endangered species.

In the 1970s it fell into disrepair, before being restored in the early 1980s. In 2003 UNESCO declared the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew a World Heritage Site, but in 2012 English Heritage proposed placing the Temperate House on the Buildings at Risk register. The current restoration project is reported to have cost £41 million.

"Every conservation technique has been realised in a way that retains the bold spirit of this elegant marriage of Victorian architecture and engineering," said Aimée Felton, associate at Donal Insall Associates and lead architect on the project.
"We have also carried out our own painstaking research on Decimus Burton and the Temperate House taking samples of old materials and studying these carefully whilst working wi...