PROJECT
Eden Project, St Austell, Cornwall

ARCHITECT
Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners

AWARDS
RIBA

 

Dubbed the Core by many reviews,  the new £15m education building at Cornwalls Eden Project - a plant-like building, all timber twists, steel turns and copper tines, or prickles creating great opportunities for architectural photography. This winds, gyres and spirals in a great spectacle around and above visitors heads.

 

The Core, dug well into the landscape so that it appears smaller than it is, is connected to the hubble-bubble of biomes across a new steel bridge making great material for architectural photography.The second floor branches out into spaces for exhibitions, films, talks and childrens workshops, while a cafe, with a terrace view of the biomes and glimpses of the undersides of the roof.

 

Its design, inspired by the plant architecture of sunflower heads, follows the famous mathematical sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and so on, discovered by Leonardo da Pisa, and called Fibonacci, in the 13th century. This is better known today as a plotting device in Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code.

 

The Eden project, housed in a former china quarry in Cornwall, is a giant botanical garden. Stretching over 26,000m sq, the project comprises of eight geodesic domes forming two biomes for trees and plants. There is also an outdoor biome, a visitor centre, an outdoor amphitheatre and an access road.  A project that lends itself to architectural photography and important to shoot in the correct weather conditions.

 

Geodesic dome

Project architects, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners based their design around the geodesic dome, brainchild of the visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller.  The structures are made up of connecting hexagons, pentagons and triangles, forming a sphere. The design becomes sturdier and lighter, in relation to its proportions, the larger it is as shown in the architectural photography. In fact, the weight of the scaffolding used far outweighed that of the domes of the biomes.

 

The domes of the Eden Project are the largest geodesic domes built yet, reaching 60m in height in places and spanning enough land to house 29 football pitches. They are made of lightweight galvanised steel tubing of varying sizes, created and cut by a computer.

 

In place of glass, ethyltetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) has been used to enclose the giant domes of the Eden Project. It is a strong highly-transparent foil, which is only 1% of the weight of glass. In keeping with the environmental nature of the project, ETFE is recyclable. The material is anti-static, self-cleaning and easily repairable (using ETFE tape in the event of a puncture).

 

The hexagonal and polygonal pillows of ETFE consist of three or four layers into which air is pumped by a solar-powered heating system. Once inflated the pillows provide more insulation than glass could. This makes them particularly weather resistant too, in times of exceptionally cold weather they can be inflated further as shown in the architectural photography. Their strength is quite impressive, each panel can easily support the weight of a human-being and will last between 20 and 30 years.

 

The environment within the biomes

 

Biomass (vegetable matter) provides 60% of the base-heating load for the site. It grows quickly and absorbs Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The majority of the biomass is willow and is grown locally, including some grown on-site.

Photovoltaics, or solar power, is used to pump air into the ETFE cells and solar panels provide water to the visitor centre shown in the architectural photography. The hot water in air-handling units is currently being heated by gas although the intention is to eventually convert to solar power. The air in the biomes is recirculated.

 

Groundwater from the pit is being pumped out daily and stored to form a pond feature, for use in flushing toilets and for irrigational purposes. The rainwater from the roof is also collected and used to humidify the biomes. Even the run-off from the car-park, once treated, will be used. Any excess water feeds Bodelva Brook, which runs nearby the site.  Commercial photography of the biomes is best shot in slightly overcast conditions to avoid the biomes from burning out.

 

This project shows the quality and variety of images that customers receive as part of our commercial photography and architectural photography service.  Call now to discuss your requirements and timescales on 079101 68536.