2024-05-21T06:59:33-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150255213/as-the-eden-project-turns-20-its-creators-take-a-look-back Alexander Walter 2021-03-16T13:51:00-04:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/90/90d359054c7a49a5351a2387b9a225e1.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Our original designs for the biomes &ndash; hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal cells supported by geodesic tubular steel &ndash; looked more like Waterloo, but we used ETFE foil, or ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, which was more transparent than glass but extremely lightweight. It uses 1% of the energy and carbon of glass. The difficulty was creating biomes that would interlock across a constantly shifting landscape.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The Eden Project with its famed geodesic biomes opened twenty years ago on March 17th, 2001 in Cornwall, England.<br></p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ff/ff69e796476ef9f8b18336b1b8c8a170.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ff/ff69e796476ef9f8b18336b1b8c8a170.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Inside the tropical biome of the Eden Project. Photo: Hchc2009/Wikimedia Commons.</figcaption></figure>