"Eco-Rainforest in the North"

Towards the end of November considerable publicity was given to the following Press Release put out by Grimshaw Architects. The item figured in the national press, and local coverage included a TV piece in which the idea was enthusiastically welcomed by St. Helens' people. We contacted Grimshaws for a copy of the article, and the accompanying picture:

Grimshaw is investigating the potential of brownfield sites for a botanical visitor attraction that will display a 'slice' of rainforest in a way that will both astonish and educate.

The focal point of the landscaped park will be a greenhouse, cutting slightly into the landscape. This enclosure will house plant and animal life, recreating the ecosystems of the tropical regions of the world. Aerial walkways will cross the enclosure at varying heights and pathways will wind around the perimeter drawing the visitor from the canopy down through the different strata to the forest floor. The entrance to the enclosure will be at canopy level, opening on to a crashing waterfall and impressive views across the treetops; from the outset the visitor will be immersed in an environment that is usually inaccessible to humans.

The concept for the enclosure's form is driven by the need to create a humid tropical environment balanced by a design imperative to produce a carbon-neutral building.

Inspiration for the design came from the pineapple sheds at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which are heated by a mixture of decomposing bark and horse manure.

Using the principle of deriving heat energy from the decomposition of domestic waste, the proposal is to construct fifty-metre-high gabion walls around the enclosure that will contain composting tubes. While the building would be heated by passive solar gain for much of the year, during the colder months heat exchange tubes will transfer the low-grade heat emissions to the enclosure to create the warm, saturated environment necessary to rainforest life. An automated delivery system will transfer the biodegradable waste from lorries to the tubes.

The roof structure is based on a planar glazing system supported by double bowstring trusses that span between the outer walls. Because much of the enclosure is set into the terrain, this angled glass plane will be the most visual element from the exterior. The shape of the enclosure is based on three converging circles. This undulating form will enhance the visitor experience by gradually revealing different aspects of the enclosure.

The creation of sustainable architecture is fundamental to Grimshaw's approach to building.

Wherever possible the practice is keen to develop innovative approaches that actively support environmental agendas. As well as contributing to the regeneration of an area, in terms of tourism potential and local employment, the concept of an eco-rainforest proposes a new model for how we might deal with waste in the future. By harnessing the energy released by the decomposition of biodegradable matter to create the right growing environments for tropical plants, it offers the potential to cultivate exotic fruit and vegetables with vastly reduced food miles.

Grimshaw's impression of what the greenhouse might look like. Two of the composting tubes are cut away at each end.

"Eden Project team plans eco-rainforest in Lancashire"

The press coverage given to this item identified the Wood Pit waste tips site near Haydock as the front-runner among possible sites for this proposal - hence the TV crew doing their street interviews in St. Helens. The impression was also given that this was a definite proposal. The GUARDIAN's article appeared under the headline above, and appeared to imply the involvement of people from the Eden Project in Cornwall itself, whereas it was the projects original Architects who were behind this latest proposal. Here are extracts from the GUARDIAN:

"The team of architects behind the Eden Project in Cornwall is planning to turn a Lancashire rubbish dump into a tropical rainforest which would heat itself with decomposing garden and kitchen waste.

The £150m proposal, dubbed "Kew of the North", could become a tourist site to rival Eden and regenerate a large area of derelict land near the M6. It includes one of England's highest waterfalls, walkways through the treetops and possibly Europe's biggest compost heap, capable of using most of the green waste of a city the size of Manchester.

One of the attractions of the proposal would be its negligible running costs, said Michael Pawlyn, a director of architects Grimshaw, who worked on the Eden Project for seven years. "The scale would be pretty vast, 25% bigger than Eden. A lot of local authorities are in a flap over what to do with their waste. The idea is to turn the problem into an opportunity."

A byproduct of the process would be thousands of tonnes of high-quality compost, which could be sold and would reduce the amount of peat dug up.

Unlike Eden, which uses fossil fuels to heat its domes in winter, Kew of the North is expected to get its fuel for free and would run at a profit even without visitors. Civil engineers working with Grimshaw estimate that it could earn about £12m a year by generating heat and electricity on site and from taking the green waste.

The demand for large-scale composting in Britain is booming because of ambitious European targets which insist that local authorities recycle more and more biodegradable waste. Local authorities pay £20 to £30 a tonne to get rid of it and can be fined £150 a tonne if they do not meet their targets.

One of the benefits, said Mr Pawley, would be to stimulate thinking about what we throw away.

"This scheme recovers heat which is usually wasted," said Jane Gilbert, chief executive of the the Composting Association. "If it's growing a rainforest people would be able to see the benefits of recycling. It sounds like win-win-win."

In following up this item a number of things became clear: that Grimshaws were a bit taken aback at the coverage and its reception - they had originally put out the Press Release last June!; that there are presently no plans to take the project forward - it was kite-flying, albeit by a firm which has enjoyed considerable success bringing innovative schemes to fulfilment; and that a major additional plus to the concept had been missed - the possibility of using an environmentally sounder transport system than lorries - the canal system.

One of the alternative routes for linking the Sankey to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal starts off from the area of the site, and is described by Dave Smallshaw in CANAL CUTTINGS Volume 5.9, Summer 2004.

Such a link, coupled with the restoration of the Sankey itself, of course, would give large parts of Merseyside, Cheshire, and Greater Manchester a water route to the project. Given the increasingly crowded state of our roads, and that this sort of traffic - low value, high bulk, where time in transit may be a plus (the material will begin cooking whilst being shipped) - is ideal for the canals, this would seem a natural extension to this visionary proposal.

Readers of Dave Smallshaw's article, mentioned above, will find a reference there to the "Kew of the North", though we have no further information about what ideas were around at that time.

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