INTERVIEW
(Clockwise from top left) Eden’s Dinosaurs
Unleashed; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Heligan Gardens; Abbey Gardens, Tresco
students will have the chance to work in unbelievably varied circumstances and get real training in the best places.” It’s not just higher-level students who’ll
benefit: local independent primary school Roselyon has also approached Eden about running a free school at the site, which would be informed by the Eden approach. Additionally, the Building Research
Establishment has brought its solar business to Eden and the Cornwall Sustainable Buildings Group is also relocating to the site, building on Smit’s vision of a hub for environmental activities. Despite all this activity, Smit says Eden
is first and foremost a visitor attraction and, as the team prepares to delve into other businesses worldwide, it’s important the Eden brand stays strong. In 2013, he established a new business, Eden Regeneration, a wholly owned subsidiary.
EDEN ABROAD Anthony Kendle, Eden’s creative director, is one of a number of Smit’s Eden colleagues who has moved to Eden Regen, which helps to fund new projects. Smit’s excited about the challenge: “It’s my favourite thing to see the people I work with, who thought that their big adventure
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was behind them, getting that smile in their eyes that they’re on another one.” The Eden Regen team currently has
six projects on its books: three in China, one in New Zealand, one in Canada and one in central Europe. All the partners are embedded in their respective communities and each project will have Eden as the cultural glue, without being carbon copies of the UK project. And they won’t necessarily be about plants – each will reflect its local geography and culture. Smit says Eden gets invited at least
once a month to open other Eden Projects, but it’s always said no. As an educational charity and social enterprise, it has to be choosy about who it associates with. “We’re not interested in copying what
we’ve done in Cornwall. What we’ve recoiled from is people who say, ‘Give us your business model and run it for us and we’ll give you a percentage of the turnover.’ That doesn’t make us want to get out of bed in the mornings,” he says. “We have two ambitions: to create a global chain of major Eden-type projects which share a culture yet transfer their different cultural perspectives; and, we want to influence as many people as possible that there’s another way to run the planet.”
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Many of the projects are in the early
stages and still under wraps. The most advanced project is in Beijing – a partnership with Vanke, the world’s biggest house builder, to create a botanic institution. Feasibility studies are under way, central government approval has been given and work is expected to begin early next year. “Eden uses plants as a canvas to tell
stories, illustrating that humans are part of nature. In Beijing we’ll use plants in a slightly different way,” says Smit, adding that the Chinese projects will all be different, but each will reflect aspects of Chinese culture. “We’re going to China because it’s the biggest country in the world, with the biggest environmental problems. They’re about to confront those problems with a force no other industrial nation could muster. We want to be part of that journey.” Ki Uta Ki Tai, meaning “from the
mountains to the sea”, is the New Zealand project that’s on the table. It’s part of efforts to regenerate Christchurch after the devastating earthquake. The aim is to create an attraction of global standing, drawing visitors and making the city a destination in its own right.
AM 4 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
PHOTO: JULIAN STEPHENS, HELIGAN GARDENS
PHOTO: JAMES RAM, THE EDEN PROJECT
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