A visit to the Eden Project (1)

Last summer i went on a short but fantastic road/foot/train trip to Cornwall (UK), and had the chance to visit the fantastic Eden Project , near St Austel.

So you might ask , what is so special about it ? Well i have been fascinated with giant greenhouses, enclosed ecosystems and terraforming ever since i read about the biosphere 2 experiment (more info here) when i was i kid, and of course the giant tents/greenhouses in Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars Trilogy (wikipedia for more info), so i simply could not pass by the occasion to visit it!

• ecologically and from an engineering point of view, it is quite fascinating , as it was built in place of an old open sky quarry, so its is a good way to "re-engineer" the land, repair it , and give it a new purpose and meaning
• as you can see from the pictures, unlike classical greenhouses , it looks very organic
• it is not a closed ecosystem per se , as some parts of the structures are left open to the "outside world"
• it has a very interesting honeycombed structure:

• There are currently two main biomes inside the main greenhouses:  tropical , and Mediterranean, the tropical biome being the most impressive one (95% humidity and around 35°C, it actually fried my cell phone, doh'!)
• The pictures simply do not do the place justice, the sheer size of it is overwhelming
• The surroundings are also lush with greenery ,  examples of special crops and the educational value is absolutely fantastic!

I will post a more detailed article in part 2 in a while, in the meantime, you can find more info here: http://www.edenproject.com/ as well as here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Project

For accomodation i advise you to stay in St Austel, and visit the surrounding area, as well as the rest of Cornwall, it really is worth seeing , not to mention how nice and welcomming people are.