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Honeycomb, fl ies eyes, fr ogspawn, cuckoo-

spit choose your organic simile. Built to

contain biological specimens, the biomes of

the Eden Project look like giant biological

specimens themselves, some kind of fungusfromouter space, perhaps, fruitingweirdly

in this worked out Cornish china clay-pit.

The design seems to have been inspired by

natural and/or science fiction images but,

though some Grimshaw buildings are indeed

image-inspired, in this case the impression is

misleading. The inspiration was not what

nature looks like but how it works, its

processes and structures. The fact that the

Eden Project is a ready-made set for

Quatermass and the Pithas been useful in the

marketingof the whole enterprise, but it

was a by-product rather than the starting

point of the design.

The greenhouses had to be sit

unshaded strip at the foot of t

north side of the pit. The first

linear, lean-to structure rathe

Grimshaws International TermWaterloo station (AR Septem

formposed a number of proble

For one thingthe three-dime

of the site, far more complicat

level curve of W aterloo, mea

difficult to use cheap, standard

components. To make matter

ground profile was constantly

duringthe development of the

because the site had not yet be

by the client and was still bein

long-span, arched structure wo

heavy, bulky and difficult to ca

the pit. It would also have cast

EDENPROJECT, CORNWALL, ENGLAND

A RCHITECT

NICHOLASGRIMSHAW & PARTNERS

1The bug-eyed geodesic domesof the HumidTropics Biome appear to engulf the grass

roof of the caf housed in the link building.2Like huge soap bubblesin the C ornishlandscape, the interlinked domeshave abeguiling(but deceptive) fragility.

EDEN REGAINEDSpectacularly colonizing a Cornish china clay-pit, the Eden Project is a monumental palm house for the

twenty-first century, its ingeniously engineered biomes inspired by natural processes and structures. comparative drawingshowingsection through the Humid T ropicsBiome and Kew Palm House

1

2


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shadows on the plants inside. A more

promising alternative was a much lighter and

more economical geodesic dome, but it had

the wrongplan-formand would have been

impossible to divide up into different zones.

The idea of a line of smaller, intersecting

geodesic domes was arrived at late in the

day, but it solved all the problems at once

and made the project possible.

It works like this: take a row of spheres of

different sizes, made like footballs out of

two-dimensional hexagons and pentagons,

and squash theminto one another, forming

perfect circles where they intersect. Then

squash the whole row into the site, in the

angle between the cliff and the quarry

bottom. Circles become arches, and the

hexagons and pentagons are removed as

necessary around the perimeter toaccommodate the irregular ground profile.

Structural components, mainly of tubular

steel joined by spherical nodes, are identical

in each dome and small enough to be easily

handled. These are not conventional domes

in that they exhibit tensile as well as

compressive structural behaviour. The

outer compressive grid is linked by

tetrahedrons to an inner tensile grid. The

double grid is necessary because the lattice

steel arches break the continuity of the

structure. For the same reason, the domes

were not self-supportingduringerection but

had to be assembled froma temporary

scaffold so bigthat it has enteredThe

Guinness Book of Records. This is a slight

disappointment for techno-organicists

raised on Buckminster Fuller (nature does

not use scaffolding), but there is nothing

heavy or awkward about the finished

structure. The geodesic grid i s scaled

accordingto the size of each dome and

except in the smallest dome, where it

becomes rather dense, the effect is

amazingly light for such enormous spans. At

the junctions with the arches, the grid is

adapted ad hoc, creatingirr egular

geometrical shapes. Architecturally, this

may seema worryinginconsistency, but it isexactly what happens in nature when, for

example, the hexagonal grid of veins in a

dragonflys wingmeets a leadingedge or a

structural spar.

The largest hexagons are 11macross and

therefore impossible to span with a single

sheet of glass, especially since it would have

to be double glazed and toughened. The

lightness of the structural grid is made

possible by a new high tech material

ethyltetrafluorethylene foil (E

light, transparent, flexible film

membrane cushions which are

by a constant low pressure air

Because they were formed an

the ETFE cushions could adapt

geometrical variations without

complicated schedulingor pro

planning. The biomes are beau

structures because they are e

structures a kind of beauty c

nature but rare in architecture

Like their humbler horticult

however, they also have a rug

practicality. The branchingne

flexible air-supply pipes, for ex

clipped to the structural stee

no attempt at concealment. T

ventilatingsystemsimply consstandingair handlers in ordina

boxes placed at intervals arou

perimeter, pokingtheir twin c

straight through the walls of th

Such artless functionalismis e

though the heavy duty adjusta

louvres associated with the du

perhaps a litt le too clumsy, th

linearity stubbornly at odds w

of the geodesic grid.

3Open ventilation panelsform a jaggedline alongthe biomes curved profile.4Caf terrace and link building, withWarm T emperate Biome beyond.5Detail of biome roof structure, withquarry cliffsbehind. The buildingoccupiesa worked-out china clay-pit.6, 7The smaller Warm Temperate Biome.

EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL, ENGLAND

A R CHITECT


3 5

4

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site plan

EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL, ENGLAND

A RCHITECT


8Hexagonal roof structure underconstruct ion, givingsome sense of theenormity of the scale.

longitudinal section

roof plan (scale approx 1:1500)

A siteaccessroa

B park ing

C coachparking

D disabledparkin

E HumidTropicF link building/c

G Warm Tempe

H visitors centre

1 HumidTropicsBiome

2 air handlingunits

3 link building/caf

4 rooflightsaboveplant

holdingarea

5 Warm TemperateBiome

typical roof node detail 8


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