△Cornwall Eden Project

△Qingdao Oriental Eden ©Grimshaw architects

△Project Site

The project is located at the mouth of the Xiangmao River and the Moshui River, bordering the Jiaozhou Bay waters. Relevant personnel from the UK have described its location as comparable to that of the Sydney Opera House. The total land area is approximately 700,000 square meters, including core and non-core zones.

△Project Location

△Jiaozhou Bay Impression of Eden

△Two Major Zones

△Overall Bird's-Eye View of the Project ©Grimshaw architects

The non-core zone is an open park, divided by a north-south central axis running through the entire park. To the left are attractions such as a holiday campsite and a party lawn; to the right are attractions such as a nature children's park and an adventure sports park, creating a green ecological welcome corridor and key gateway landscape nodes.

△Holiday Campsite and Party Lawn ©Grimshaw architects

△Nature Children's Park and Adventure Sports Park

The core zone's design is water-themed. Through a series of spatial organizations and scene designs, it aims to showcase the profound meaning of water as the lifeline of nature, culture, and civilization. This includes the entrance pavilion, tropical rainforest greenhouse, water extremes pavilion, water quality pavilion, and other related supporting facilities.

△Four Pavilions in the Core Zone ©Grimshaw architects

△Bird's-Eye View of the Core Zone

The entrance pavilion creates a fairytale-like water world entrance image for visitors through landscape waterscapes, water sculptures, a water theater, and multimedia light and shadow water shows.

△Entrance Pavilion ©Grimshaw architects

The Water Extremes Pavilion aims to showcase the survival status of plants and animals under extreme climates with depleted resources, making people aware of the importance of water to the earth itself and to life on earth, inspiring people to be more proactive in recognizing the preciousness of global water resources and the importance of the water cycle.

△Water Extremes Pavilion ©Grimshaw architects

The Water Quality Pavilion contrasts with the Water Extremes Pavilion, mainly showcasing the state of abundant water resources. Through the dramatic performance of interactive smart technology devices, visitors can experience firsthand how water evolves from a microscopic life form into a thunderous storm scene.

△Water Quality Pavilion ©Grimshaw architects

The core tropical rainforest greenhouse is the largest indoor rainforest in the world. Visitors can overlook the entire rainforest via the internal high-altitude walkway. The most attractive feature inside is a huge mechanical mountain. Water cascades from the mountaintop into the pool below, creating a thunderous orchestral sound, becoming the heavenly sound of the entire park. The shape of the mountain changes its shadow constantly under the sunlight, and the water is constantly flowing, along with the plants and animals, making the entire space full of life and vitality.

△Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse ©Grimshaw architects

△Night View of the Tropical Rainforest Greenhouse ©Grimshaw architects

△High-Altitude Walkway

△Huge Mechanical Mountain

The rainforest greenhouse adopts a large-span main arch and single-layer reticulated shell structure. The facade material is a new type of environmentally friendly ETFE membrane, with a service life of more than 25 years. It has better heat preservation, lighting, and energy-saving performance than traditional building materials, maximizing the use of sunlight and effectively reducing energy consumption, reflecting the concept of sustainable development.

△Facade ETFE Membrane ©Grimshaw architects

Oriental Eden is jointly developed by China Jinmao Holdings and the UK Eden Project. As early as 2015, a construction plan with an investment of £150 million was announced, with plans to open in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening was delayed to 2023, but it is still under construction.

△Current Exterior

According to the latest news from Qingdao High-tech Zone, the project is currently comprehensively promoting indoor and outdoor landscape and decoration construction, and the in-depth design work of experience-type projects is also underway simultaneously. It is expected to open in mid-2025.