Eden Project Interviews and Observations Conducted by Chris Hardy on Saturday 14 April 2001
What was the idea behind the Eden Project?
So why is Eden here? Why is it in Cornwall and why
is it in this clay pit? It is in Cornwall because the original idea was Tim
Smits. He lives in Cornwall of course he lives locally
in St Austell and it was decided that it would be a good place
to put it because it would help the tourist industry and it would help
the local economy; and the choice of actual site is because they thought
that putting it in a South facing disused china clay pit would be a
good geographical location for it. As we have the different climatic
regions, we obviously want to maximise the sunshine so the biomes are
built leaning against that North wall, all South facing so that they
get most of the sun. Were there any major unforeseen difficulties? Lots. Where would you like me to start! Finance
raising the money was a terrible struggle and still is. We have only
just recently got sufficient funds to say we can fund our capital project
at £86,000,000, so funding it has been a complete nightmare. Planning
was very difficult because local planners were sceptical about whether
or not it was going to cause massive congestion on the roads and other
things, and what it was going to look like because obviously it was
a very unusual design and even whether or not they wanted to have it
in Cornwall, so planning was a huge problem. There have been all sorts
of problems with construction and design because it is a completely
revolutionary design. Something like this has never been built before.
Other problems were things like just growing the plants because no-one
has every actually tried to grow a tropical rainforest before. We grew
it in our local nursery and then transported across to here the plants
we had grown and replanted them here at Bodelva. Soil manufacture was
something else. We have made our own soils. So we have had lots of problems
along the way but we have solved them as we have gone along. Can you see any problems coming up in the future? Oh yes, I can see lots. Overcrowding you have
been here today and we have got a lot of people on this site and we
have only been open three weeks. We dont know how many visitors
to expect but we are obviously getting rather more than we thought and
they are going to get fed up waiting in queues, is that going to be
a major problem? This is Easter what is it going to be like in
May? We dont know. But that is just the operational side of it.
What we have got to do now is build up the institute side which is the
research side, which is the serious side of Eden. What you have seen
here is just the visitor attraction. That is not really what Eden is
about. Eden is about much more important things like the research behind
it. How long will the plastic last on the biomes? You mean the ETFE foil? Well, there are a number of
other buildings that have used ETFE foil as part of their construction
and I think one them has been up and around for about 25 years. The
manufacturers seem to think that 25 years is about right but nobody
really knows. The nice thing about ETFE foil panels is not so much how
long they will last, but that you can replace each individual panel
if something goes wrong with it. So if we get a puncture in one of them
if a bird flies into it or it gets damaged in some other way,
you can actually take that panel out as if you were just changing a
window frame and putting a new one in. So we could replace all the panels
over a period of time. One would hope that they would not all go at
once but we need to keep an eye on them. Obviously we are monitoring
it very closely as we dont really know but we hope about 25 years
and that is not an unreasonable amount of time in which to have to replace
the whole thing. How many panes are there? No idea, I havent counted them but you are welcome
to go out and count them yourself. How long did it take from conception to the opening? If you mean from Tim having his first idea, I think
that was about 1994 when he first dreamt the idea up and then we got
the Millennium Commission grant in 1996, so seven years from first thought
and five years from getting the Millennium Commission grant to actually
opening the doors. How does the amount of interest and number of visitors
compare to what was anticipated? It is exceeding all expectations. We thought last year
that we could probably get about 250 visitors. This was our Big Build
exhibition when we only had the visitor centre open and we got just
short of half a million. This year we were anticipating getting about
750,000 but if we keep on like this it will be nearer 2,000,000. I am
sure it wont keep on like this; its just that it is Easter,
it is new and everybody is rushing to see it. I am sure we will however
exceed our predictions. How long is it anticipated that this project will
continue? Forever, Eden is about looking at sustainable development
and assuming that it is successful, Eden is intended to be an ongoing
project to develop sustainable ideas and we hope that it will be here
forever. That is the plan. Is our brilliant winter, spring, etc climate going
to upset anything? No, because the biomes are covered with three different climatic regions. There are the humid tropics with areas like Malaysia, West Africa, Oceania and it is all humidity controlled, and this is the advantage of the ETFE foil. The second area is the Then there is the outside temperate climate, which is basically Cornwall. We dont tend to have frost here, so we can grow plants like those in a cool Chilean rainforest.
Interview with Mark Paterson, Guide
What response have you had from people coming in? Do you mean in general, regarding the set up? Yes. Very, very positive, very favourable. Everyone is impressed.
There are a few complaints but they are by far the minority. People are
wowed by the size of it, by the general idea of it. The general response
has been superb. We have had a lot of people come through, more than we
had anticipated and we are very pleasantly surprised. Our largest number
was yesterday (I dont know what todays figures are) but yesterday
we had 10,800 people come through which is very impressive. When we opened
four weeks ago we had about 3.500 on the first day and we were very pleasantly
surprised with that. Whether these numbers will continue we are not sure,
but we feel we are always going to get some thousands per day but as for
these high figures in the 8,000+ region, we will have to wait and see
what happens during the summer season. What do you see happening in the future? The future of Eden is massive, it is positive, it is going
to continue apace with a lot of new things coming on board. The name of
Eden as the Eden Project is very deliberate, as the main project will
always be there because we are constantly evolving, we are constantly
expanding our remit. We are a project. We will never be fully finished.
There will always be planting to be done. There will always be potentially
new exhibits to show. We are not a botanic garden so we are not fussed
in the years to come of taking out one exhibit and showing another area
of the world with the plants that we use. Certainly the visual remit of
Eden is what I was saying, the expansion of the plants and showing them
to public. What is going on behind the scenes, which is Edens role
of facilitating the sharing of knowledge by organisations and governments,
corporate bodies, individuals, universities, anyone who wants to come
on board with Eden and share their knowledge and showing that they are
working towards a common goal, they are interested in green issues, they
are interested in sustainability, be that from a conservation standpoint
or from an economic standpoint, if they are interested we will facilitate
their knowledge when we can, as we can to assist. And that is probably
the greatest asset that Eden has and that will never stop. Do you know how many panels there are? I dont know but somebody has told me that it is
not as many as I thought. It is in the hundreds rather than in the thousands
per biome. What I can tell you that the largest span, the largest hexagon,
is in this biome and it is 11 metres. If you do want to know I can find
out, or check the website. I am sure they will have all the facts and
figures listed. What is your official role? My role is two fold. I am a guide. That is my formal title
and that is what I have been hired for. When I am not guiding I am explaining.
The difference is that when I am guiding I am taking a designated group
around who have paid a sum of money to be taken around for 90 minutes.
Explaining is when I am on site and there are key spaces in each of the
biomes where we can talk to the general public, attract them in and explain
individual plants or a display of plants. Where we are standing in the
humid tropics right now there are individual plants I cold tell you about
such as the Peanut directly at our feet. The Tamarind tree is on the corner
there. The Tamarind membrane around the seed is used in Worcester Sauce
to provide the flavour. This is also a good laxative. If you want to sit
on the toilet all day, down a bottle of Worcester Sauce and go into the
toilet with a good book to read. You will get through it, no worries.
Conversely, directly in front of us on the lower path there is West Africa
and the display we are showing there is agroforestry, the use of plants
growing at different paces at different times for human use. Brief interviews with members of the public as they
passed. Family of three from Cornwall Living nearby, they knew about the Project but this was
their first visit. They were so pleased with the project that they stopped
me to ask what I thought of it. They were very impressed, especially with
the humid biome containing the rainforest plants. The father was fascinated by the variety of plants, and
the way the planting was made to look so natural. The mother thought it was very interesting to learn about
all the different plants and to see what sugar cane, for example, looks
like. The son, aged about nine, thought the best exhibits were
the Cola tree, the Chewing Gum tree and the Chocolate tree, because he
didnt realise these things came from trees. They had been all around the biomes but were reluctant
to leave, as they were still taking it all in. Retired couple from Surrey They were on holiday in Cornwall and visited Eden because
they happened to see a sign. They had enjoyed every minute of their visit but having done it they were in the shop buying fridge magnets and just wanted to leave and go on to the next thing. They did say they would visit again if they were in the area. Some observations on other groups in the Eden Project. Group of two adults with five girls, aged about four years to about 12 years.
Lady with two boys aged about six years old and a girl of about nine.
The road in to the Eden Project was very busy and we were in a queue for about 30 minutes before reaching a member of staff who told us that getting on to the site and parking would probably take us about another hour. We told him we had an appointment with Carey Lescure and were sent to another entrance, which was very quiet. We were then directed to the staff car park. Several people in the queue turned around and did not bother to wait but the vast majority seemed happy to sit patiently in their cars for the 1-2 hours needed to get in to the Project.
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