Eden Project Scotland, UK

Eden Project Scotland will be a landmark development for Dundee, transforming the former gasworks on East Dock Street into a beacon for regeneration and green tourism. It will encourage visitors to think, feel and act differently by revealing how we can learn from and be inspired by nature. 

The project will combine exhibits, performance, learning, play, immersive experiences, world class horticulture, live music, art and food, beverage and retail spaces, all integrated as essential parts of the overall experience. 

The project is inspired by Dundee’s Nine Incorporated Trades and will introduce a new set of contemporary Guilds. These Guilds will be underpinned by the perspectives and skills needed for a regenerative future. 

Guild Embassies – both physical and virtual - will be rooted in communities and enable activities that will be brought together and showcased at the main attraction. 

In 2023, the Eden Project embarked on an extensive consultation process, including face-to-face and online public engagement sessions and online feedback tools, feeding into the submission of a planning application for Eden Project Scotland.

This process was an opportunity for the city of Dundee to help shape the planning application and act as a co-creator of Eden Project Scotland. 

The development of Eden Project Scotland has been informed and influenced by extensive work with groups and residents in the city. The formal process of public consultation on which Eden embarked on was a continuation of this collaboration. 

The Eden Project hosted a series of in-person events in the city and online events. The community events gave people an opportunity to hear the latest from Eden Project leaders and provide detailed feedback over a range of subjects. 

Recordings of the online events can be viewed below.

Resources

• Consultation Boards
• Have Your Say - Community Consultation Survey

Site of the former Dundee Gasworks

Following a six-month "pollination" process at the beginning of the Eden Project Scotland journey, the site of former Dundee Gasworks was identified as the preferred home of the project.

In May 2021, a memorandum of understanding between the Eden Project and the owners of the site - energy companies National Grid and SGN - was signed to begin the process of exploring the practicalities of converting the post-industrial site on the city's East Dock Street into Eden's home in Scotland.

The site is set back from the Dundee waterfront on the bank of the River Tay. It has good public transport links, the potential for a new pedestrian connection to the city centre and is less than a mile away from V&A Dundee and the train station.

The existing tall brick walls on the site suggested to the Eden team the potential to create walled gardens, making for a striking contrast to the industrial heritage of the Gasworks. Eden envisages this as a powerful symbol of regeneration, echoing the project’s home in Cornwall which is located in a former clay quarry.