Eden Project aims to develop site

The Eden Project in Cornwall, the UK’s most successful Millennium initiative, has today unveiled ambitious plans for a £100m investment in the next stage of its development.

Designed to consolidate its offer and help it cope with the unexpectedly high public interest in the 50 hectare site, the masterplan by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, the architect behind the Eden Project’s two iconic biomes, advocates a series of new structures.

Plans include another biome, a Learning Lift educational building, an Engine Room facility comprising a visitor gateway, and a Fertile Crescent, involving a field centre, a farm and a conference area.

An Eden Project spokeswoman describes the undertaking as being of the ‘same size as [the existing site] all over again’. She says it represents the original vision of Eden Project chief executive Tim Smit and his team, which was previously curtailed for lack of funds.

The Eden Project will look to gain European, Millennium Commission and regional development agency funding for the initiative.

Initial predictions for visitor numbers to the attraction were 750 000 per year, but the site is drawing two million people.

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