A garden of earthly delights

ADAM and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Paradise for eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Could we, their descendants, get back to paradise by doing the same thing; seeking knowledge? If we are to make the Earth healthy and wholesome again, we need to know how to do it.

So reasoned a group of enthusiasts in 1994 when they dreamed of building an enormous garden, the likes of which had never been seen before. A series of model ecosystems would explore the relationship between people and plants, worldwide. “Cynicism does not seem to have made the world a better place, so we thought we would try innocence,” declared Tim Smit, re-discoverer of the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the driving force behind the aptly-named Eden Project.

The site chosen for the new paradise was a gigantic china clay-pit, 5km northeast of St Austell in Cornwall. This huge hole in the ground resembles a steep-sided meteor crater and encloses an area sufficient for 35 football pitches. Deep within it, and along its sides, a series of ‘biomes’ have been created, each featuring the plants of a particular type of climate. Architect Nicolas Grimshaw’s design was inspired by phyllotaxis, the arrangement of leaves on the stem of a plant. The focus is on plants of value to humans for food, building materials, clothing or medicine.