`We must be the most visited building site in the world," says Tim Smit, referring to the 2,500 people who have visited the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, since its first phase opened in May. So great had been the demand for previews of the work in progress that it was decided to open the visitors' centre for a limited period to allow people to go behind the scenes and see "The Big Build". From this elevated site it is possible to overlook the whole area of what, when finished, will be a global garden.
The visionary and driving force behind the concept is Tim Smit, whose aim is to "promote the understanding and responsible management of the vital relationship between plants, people and resources, leading towards a sustainable future for all". Smit had no previous knowledge of horticulture: his background was in the music industry, as a producer, and it was his plan to build a recording studio that brought him to Cornwall in the first place.
As fate would have it, during a visit he got talking to a friend who had inherited the Tremanye Estate, with its famous Gardens of Heligan. Neglected since the outbreak of war in 1914, the gardens had fallen into disrepair, but through Smit and his business partner, John Nelson, they were rediscovered and restored. It was to be a very steep learning curve in horticulture for Smit. The Gardens of Heligan are the largest restored gardens in Europe and Britain's most visited private garden.
On the back of his success, the seed of an idea - building a global garden to demonstrate the importance of plants and vegetation - began to sprout. It took two years to find the perfect site, but in 1997 it was decided that the Bodelva China Clay Pit near St Austell, in Cornwall, met the criteria.
Suprisingly, given the scale of the project, there was no problem with planning permission. Initial funding of £37.15 million was awarded by Britain's Millennium Commission in 1997. Additional funding was raised by Smit and his team, which by his own admission has been a "hard slog". He feels too much of his time has been taken up with raising money -
the total currently stands at £79 million - and not enough spent in development. An additional £6 million is still needed.
The Eden Project is positioned in a 60-metre-deep crater, the width of 35 football pitches. This will be home to the world's largest geodesic structures - the giant conservatories, or covered "biomes", needed to create the garden. Three of the world's climate zones (biomes) will be recreated: the humid tropics (rainforests and Oceania, together with the warm temperate regions (Mediterranean, South African Cape and California), will be contained in two giant conservatories, while the third, our own temperate zone, will be housed in a roofless biome. Building finishes this week, and planting begins right away. The biggest headache in the initial stages was drainage. The crater was 30 metres below the water table, so miles of pipes had to be laid and the ground level raised. The design itself was chosen because the biomes could be moulded to the shape of the site. They will give maximum size and strength with minimum steel support, and they are energy-efficient, giving the biggest space with the smallest surface area. Spanning 110 metres at its widest point, each allows complete freedom for the plants.
The windows for the biomes are made of ethyltetrafluroethylene (ETFE) - a hitech transparent foil - as glass was deemed too heavy and inflexible to work with. Wind tunnel tests were carried out on the model and results showed that the biomes would be in danger of lift-off in a strong wind. Therefore 12-metre long steel "tentpegs" have been used to anchor the structures.
The idea is to make horticulture interesting to everyone. "Most people find it as dull as watching paint dry," he says. "We have devised a Roald Dahl approach to educating people - making plants more interesting by telling blood-curdling stories of plant poisons, and plants that were used to stop victims of human sacrifice from screaming." He believes this approach makes more of an impression and has a lasting impact on the visitor. "The problem with experts is that they can't relate to people - scientists do us a huge disservice by being too technical in their field of expertise."
Of necessity, his own knowledge of horticulture has vastly improved - but he believes he needs "to remain moronic in order to communicate with people in layman's language. I want to keep testing these guys [the scientists]". Keeping the language simple reaches a bigger audience. "I believe that most professional adults are expert only in the area of their profession - thereafter they revert to being a 12-year-old."
A range of artists will be on site working in a variety of media: automata, sculpture, animation, puppetry, live music and performance. A favourite exhibit of Tim's is the breakfast tableau which illustrates our unacknowledged dependence on plants. In it, visitors see all the ingredients from the kitchen disappear, as do the characters' clothes, leaving them naked and vulnerable. The finale is the death of the cat. "People won't forget that," he says.
Underlying all the fun there are serious messages that the Eden Project team aims to get across. It's a humorous, startling and novel introduction to human dependence on plants and the complexity of environmental issues. And Smit is determined that although the structure will be a monument to architecture, it's still the issue of the environment which is most important.
He puts his success in getting the project off the ground down to the people he works with: and they return the compliment. Without Smit's undying enthusiasm and belief in Eden, they say, it would never have happened. "l like to have the idea, achieve it, then disown it and let people adopt it as their own - my next project is to build a city . . ."
The Eden Project website is at www.edenproject.com. Phase one closes to the public on November 5th to prepare for the grand opening in spring 2001.