Royal Botanic Gardens (VIC)
The National Herbarium building is a scientific research facility and store, located within and operated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria (RBGV). The Herbarium collects, curates, catalogues and stores dried plant specimens from the across the world, and is utilised as a formal Reference Collection, used to confirm the identity of plant materials (including pest species), and to track their geographic distribution in the field, over time.
Nature & Science Precinct
Business Case
Direct Client: Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria
Services Primary : Business Care
Services Secondary : Economics & Financial Analysis
Sector: Tourism & Recreation
Background
The Herbarium forms part of an international network of herbaria, which intentionally overlap their holdings in order to insure the collections against damage, principally from pest infestation but also from building system failures (heat, cold, humidity). Herbaria also play an important role in engaging the public and school aged children about environmental processes, and the plant kingdom in particular.
Aalto’s Role
Aalto was engaged by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria, (RBGV) to prepare a detailed business case for the development of a Nature and Science Precinct on the edge of the Gardens, incorporating modernisation of the National Herbarium.
Aalto Principals Claire Moritz and Darron Cook prepared a business case which developed and compared options for the redevelopment of the Herbarium alongside suitable visitor facilities to expand both the scientific capacity of the facility alongside the ability to share the importance of the history and scientific investigation and provide a contemporary context to a historic collection.
The business case proceeded over two stages, to identify a broad strategic option (redevelopment of the entire building) and then a single preferred project option (scale, functional range) which demonstrated the superior outcome in terms of costs, benefits and risks to the Victorian community as a whole. The Aalto scope included a detailed economic and financial model, which measured the broad range of socioeconomic benefits arising from a redeveloped herbarium, compared against a ‘base case’.
Working alongside John Wardle Architects, Kerstin Thompson Architects and RLB Quantity Surveyors a staged, costed solution was put forward for funding support.
Outcomes & Insights
The analysis highlighted the range of benefits that were delivered by the facility, including scientific and sustainability outcomes, improvements to biosecurity and international collaboration, and resilience of native flora to climate change.
It also cast new light on the cultural and tourism impacts that the overall precinct would deliver for the local region and Melbourne more broadly.
The business case was accepted by the RBGV and the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) in early 2020, for consideration in the 2020/21 Victorian Budget, making a shortlist of proposals to be submitted for consideration by State Cabinet.