CUE & Butterfly House Decarbonisation

2026-11-03

The Butterfly House and Centre for Understanding the Environment (CUE) are located within the wider Horniman Gardens site, which is a Grade II listed Park and Garden. The CUE was constructed in 1995 and was originally intended as a temporary structure with an expected lifespan of 20 years. The Butterfly House was constructed in 2016 as glasshouse for tropical plants and butterflies. The Horniman wish to engage a Main Contractor who will manage and deliver the implementation of the decarbonisation of the above buildings in the listed setting. The works will be let on the basis of traditional JCT contract intermediate form without quantities, but with some contractor design elements. As part of the Horniman's Climate and Ecology Manifesto we have made a commitment to become Greenhouse Gas Neutral by 2040. The key objective of this project is to move us towards this goal by doing the following: • Butterfly House: Replacing the gas cabinet air heater with air-to-air Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs). • Butterfly House: Thermal performance and air tightness improvement by replacing existing glass and acrylic with triple layer polycarbonate cladding to existing steel structure with new aluminum glazing bars, window and vents. • Butterfly House: Thermal performance and carbon reduction by installation of new trench heating with new Air Handling Unit and visitor path surface or as an alternative an fan-coil system • CUE: Replacing the gas boiler in the Centre for Understanding the Environment (CUE) building with air-to-water Air Source Heat Pumps. • CUE: Improve the thermal performance and air tightness improvement by draught proofing and thermal bridge mitigation including floor, wall and roof new thermal insulation. • CUE: Install Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) • Upgrading the electrical cables inside both the Butterfly House and CUE building.

United Kingdom (UK)

2026-04-02