The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) is to officially open its new modern glasshouse development, the MacLeod Complex, this month.

James Paice, MP for South East Cambridgeshire and shadow secretary of state for agriculture and rural affairs, will open the complex at NIAB’s Park Farm near Histon on 29 January.

It has been named after former NIAB director, and now chairman of the NIAB Trust, Professor John MacLeod, and is part of a long-term major capital redevelopment programme by NIAB that includes consolidating its Cambridge operations into two main centres - a smaller but redeveloped footprint at Huntingdon Road and the field station and glasshouse complex at Park Farm.

Construction of the eight state-of-the-art glasshouses, by the specialist glasshouse construction firm Cambridge HOK, began in mid-April 2009 and took seven months. The 1,824sqm complex replaces the 1,712sqm of older glasshouses due for demolition at Huntingdon Road.

The modern glasshouse facilities vary in length and technology installed depending on the specific crop requirements. The range of material grown in the glasshouses varies widely, reflecting the diverse nature of work carried out by NIAB, including peas, beans, potatoes and a wide range of ornamental plants.

Some glasshouses have been separated into stand-alone compartments, allowing different environmental conditions to be created. The new facilities, built with a ‘green’ agenda in mind, utilise the space more efficiently so the growing space is far greater. Other aspects include supplementary lighting complemented by black-out blinds to reduce light pollution for nearby residents or to reduce light entering the glasshouses from the surrounding environment.

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