An innovative project aims to help visitors take a fresh look at the world around them.

The clothes we wear, the food we eat, even the air we breathe – we rely on plants for all these things. An ambitious new project based in Cornwall aims to provide 750,000 visitors a year with a gateway into the world of plants, and a reminder of the mutual dependency between people and the world around them.

The £86 million Eden Project is working to increase awareness and understanding of Agenda 21, the framework for sustainable development. Around 4,500 species of plants are housed in hugh Biomes, surrounded by works of art, a visitors’ centre, and a fair trade shop. The spectacular Humid Tropics Biome is the world’s largest greenhouse, filled with the immense trees of the rainforest, and with its very own waterfall, while the plants of the Mediterranean, South Africa and California can be found in the Warm Temperate Biome.

According to the driving force behind the project, chief executive Tim Smit: “We have intended to create something that not only encourages us to understand and to celebrate the world we live in, but also inspires us to action. Eden isn’t so much a destination as a place in the heart. We want people to leave here feeling that we all could make a very real difference to the world we live in if we could work together.”

Eden facts

• 1.8 million tonnes of dirt were shifted by 12 dumper trucks and eight bulldozers in six months to clear the site.
• The Humid Tropics Biome is 11 double-decker buses high and 24 buses long. It could accommodate the Tower of London in area.
• The biomes weigh only slightly more than the air they contain.
• The scaffolding used to erect the biomes is listed in the Guinnness Book of Records as the largest free-standing scaffold ever built – 46,000 poles, and 230 miles in all.
• The biomes contain over 135,000 plants, of approximately 4,500 species.
• There are a total of 625 hexagons making up the biomes, the largest of which is 11 metres across.

Image: Eden Project stream © Simon Burt/Apex