Editorial

Citation

Finch, E. (2001), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 19 No. 13/14. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2001.06919maa.001

Editorial

The Eden Project is one of the UK's most successful millennium projects. Located in a former china clay pit in Cornwall, the £74 million project (including £43 million from the Millennium Commission) has been a sell-out – with visitor numbers far exceeding expected visitor numbers: so much so that concerns have been raised about the ability of Cornwall's infrastructure to cope with the influx of visitors. The mission of the Eden Project is to "Promote the understanding and responsible management of the vital relationship between plants, people and resources, leading towards a sustainable future for all." This has been achieved by the creation of a living theatre of plants and people. The structures that house the controlled growing environment are called biomes, made of a honeycomb structure of galvanised tubular steel glazed with a triple layer of ETFE (Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene) foil, which has an expected life of 30 years and is guaranteed maintenance free for at least 25 years.

Visiting the centre, I was struck by people's interest not only in plants but in the conditioned environments. The two main biomes house the "humid tropics" (1.55 hectares) and the "warm temperate" (0.65 hectares) environments. The humid tropical environment exposes the visitor to a vast open space that is both stifling yet invigorating. Relieved by the occasional rest area or water spray, the visitors wind their way along a path around the biome. Moving on to the warm temperate biome the visitor feels they have arrived in a wine growing region in the south of France or olive growing region of Italy.

Another visitor centre on a similar theme that I recently visited is the Universeum in Gothenburg, Sweden that opened in June 2001. Although more modest in scale it combines five different natural environments under the headings: Water's way, Oceanarium, Rainforest, Explora, and Kaleido. The Universeum's mission is to "stimulate an interest in the natural sciences and technology amongst young people". Whilst the building itself is more conventional than the biomes of the Eden project, the conditioned environments are also designed to house small animals including a variety of sea-dwelling and fresh-water animals. The free flying highly coloured birds in the rainforest area provide a striking visual and singing display.

So does the public's enthusiasm for natural environments have any implications for facilities management? Office workers, hospital patients, students and factory workers – or inhabitants of any other type of facility – all have a longing for intimacy with nature. Natural environments are characterised by diversity and complexity: diversity in terms of different comfort and lighting regimes: complexity in terms of sounds and colour patterns. Facilities managers should see projects such as the Universeum and the Eden Project as experiments in facilities management – not just experiments with plants. The subjects of the experiment are the visitors themselves and their response to these diverse environments.

Information about the projects can be found from the following Web locations:

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  Eden Project: http://www.edenproject.com/ and

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  Universeum: http://www.universeum.se/

Edward Finch