Designed by leading architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, the building work brought about another landmark. For the first time in 28 years, construction giants Sir Robert McAlpine and Alfred McAlpine joined forces to bring the Eden Project to life.

But the weather also had its say, and for two months the heavens opened and it rained solidly. 43 million gallons of water drained into the pit.

Creating a platform for the Biomes entailed a huge building operation. A total of 1.8 million tonnes of soil had to be shifted to create a level base in the pit. Like a miniature 'Great Wall of China' the foundations of the Biomes formed a huge necklace in the bottom of the pit and up the back wall, 2 metres wide, 1.5 metres thick and 858 metres long.

Another problem faced by the designers was how to build a garden with plants of global significance in a pit with no soil? While the forces of nature take hundreds of years to make soil, the team at the Eden Project had two years.

The solution was found in a combination of china clay waste and composted green waste, 85,000 tonnes of it in total - a compost heap to end all compost heaps! The result is a new life for waste materials and the plants of the Eden Project are thriving on it.