Say hello to the Eden team at Rip Curl Boardmasters

Come and say hello to some of the Eden Team at our stand at the RipCurl Boardmasters, Newquay's biggest annual surfing event, and learn more about the Eden Eco-Board. It's a project we've been working on since 2003 with the ultimate aim of seeing all surfboard manufacturers using sustainable materials and processes.

Artist reaches new heights

Acclaimed British artist Paul McGowan has marked the start of an exciting new residency at Eden by ascending with his paintings in our Mediterranean Biome.

The show, Living on the Edge will be housed in the spectacular surroundings of the Mediterranean Biome from August 8 2008.

The exhibition, McGowan’s first major show in six years, is part of a 12 month residency and is entirely inspired by the Eden Project. The first installation features two huge paintings suspended from the Biome’s roof structure and twelve new works on easels, all reflecting the notion of a species living on the edge; their existence controlled and defined by mankind. Wildlife paintings will be interspersed with abstract mask paintings which are pieced together from anatomical elements of extinct or endangered animals. The work will illuminate key Eden concepts: namely to remind people what nature gives us, and to help people learn how to look after it in return.

Eden launches its Clean Energy project

Exciting news - Eden is introducing a proposal to build a wind turbine on the northern side of our site near Melon car park.

The turbine would supply clean electricity for us to run our own operations, and to feed some back into the national grid so Eden would become a net contributor to the national electricity resource.

As an environmental educational charity, Eden puts sustainability at the heart of its operations and business practice. We're currently trialling a state-of-the-art biomass boiler run on wood chippings which, it is hoped, will supply 25 per cent of the heating for Eden’s main system. In 2005 we installed a Neter composter, the first of its kind in the UK, designed to “eat” leftover food and other waste and turn it into compost.

Although we've been signed up to a green tariff electricity supply for years, the twin problems of energy security and climate change are now so compelling that this is simply no longer enough. We want to do our bit by increasing renewable electricity supplies.

Find out more about the Eden Clean Energy Project

Architecture Sans Frontières summer school

Budding architects can join us at Eden for the annual Architecture Sans Frontières Summer School this August.

The Summer School runs from 29 August – 3 September and is open to anyone interested in architecture and the built environment.

The questions the team are asking this year are: Can we reuse and recycle what we throw away in the design and production of buildings? And how does waste-recycling relate to questions of livelihood, to governance and to partnerships in a global context?

Fancy it? For further information visit the Architecture Sans Frontières website

Titan arum is about to flower

A giant specimen of the world's biggest, smelliest flower is about to burst into bloom at Eden.

The extremely rare Titan arum, known as the corpse flower due to its revolting smell, is now installed in a pot in the sultry depths of the Malaysia area in Eden's Rainforest Biome - the biggest greenhouse in the world.

Astonishingly, this is the fourth time skilled horticulturist Tim Grigg of the Eden Green Team has nurtured a titan to flower. He believes this could be the biggest one yet, as the tuber - the plant’s underground storage organ - weighs 61 kilograms, almost twice as heavy as any of the previous specimens to flower at Eden.

Tim said: "It looks like being a real whopper. It will be exciting to see how it develops over the next week or so and how big the flower is when it opens. We have never had one blossom in the height of summer before. We will need to warn people about the pong. It is quite revolting but fortunately you only smell it when you are in close proximity of the open flower."

The plant - real name Amorphophallus titanum - hails from Sumatra. Although it is a distant relative of the ‘lords and ladies’, a British lily, the Titan is unique in the plant world. It is a true giant capable of growing to a size of 3m (9ft 10ins). The plant is distinguished by its yellowy, fleshy spike known as a spadix. This is wrapped in a single cream leaf which, when opened, reveals a rich crimson inside. When the plant is ready to attract pollinators, the spike heats up and gives off the smell which disgusts humans but is very attractive to insects. It then develops the fruit which attracts birds.

If you want to follow the Titan’s spectacular flowering watch it on our webcam