Eden Project
Interesting facts
- Glass was rejected for the domes as too heavy and dangerous; the ETFE cushions weigh far less, and the largest, at the top, are up to about 9 metres across.
- The biomes are completely self-supporting, with no internal columns, and their cladding is cleaned by abseilers while punctures are mended with ETFE tape.
- The humid air of the Rainforest Biome is fed by rainwater that collects at the bottom of the old pit; mains water is used only for cooking and handwashing.
- The roof of the Core education building follows phyllotaxis, the spiral pattern seen in sunflower heads and pine cones.
- Inside the Core stands Seed, a 70-tonne egg carved by Peter Randall-Page from a single block of Bodmin Moor granite and patterned on plant-growth geometry.
- A geothermal well drilled about 4.5 km into the granite beneath the site has heated the biomes since 2023 with water at around 85 °C.
- The World Pasty Championships, a contest for the best Cornish pasties, have been held at the Eden Project since 2012.
- In 2007 Eden tried to win lottery funding for a third, desert biome and invited Cornwall to attempt a record for the world's biggest pub quiz; the bid failed.
- In the Cornish language the Eden Project goes by the name Edenva.
Why it is worth it
At the bottom of a former china clay pit in Cornwall, a cluster of giant bubbles holds a tropical forest. The Eden Project's two covered biomes are chains of interlocking geodesic domes, built from a tubular steel frame and clad not in glass but in hexagonal cushions of ETFE, a light, UV-transparent plastic film inflated into pillows that insulate the interior. Seen from the rim of the pit, they look less like greenhouses than like a colony of soap bubbles that has settled in a quarry.
The pit had been worked for clay for more than 160 years and was close to exhausted by the mid-1990s; in 1981 it had even stood in for the surface of the planet Magrathea in the BBC's television version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The idea of turning it into a showcase of the world's plants came from Tim Smit and Jonathan Ball in 1996. Grimshaw Architects designed the complex with the structural engineers Anthony Hunt Associates, and building started in 1998, slowed at first by heavy rain that flooded parts of a site lying about 15 metres below the water table. A visitor centre opened in 2000 and the full project on 17 March 2001. It is run by a registered charity, the Eden Trust.
The larger Rainforest Biome covers about 1.56 hectares and reaches 55 metres in height, 100 metres in width and 200 metres in length, making it one of the largest indoor rainforests in the world; bananas, coffee, rubber trees and giant bamboo grow in its warm, humid air. The smaller Mediterranean Biome, 35 metres high, holds olives, vines and other plants of warm, dry climates. Around them, outdoor gardens planted with tea, lavender, hops and sunflowers represent the temperate zones, along with native Cornish species, and in 2016 a grove of young coast redwoods was planted on the site. The biomes have appeared on screen in the James Bond film Die Another Day, and in 2005 the site hosted the Africa Calling concert of the Live 8 series.
Getting there
The Eden Project lies about 3 km from St Austell, whose station is on the Cornish Main Line and is linked to the site by bus. The nearest airport is Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY), about 20 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England owned and operated by registered charity the Eden Trust. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit.
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