The Eden Project visitor attraction in Dundee will span several locations to contain the city’s “nine new guilds”.
Plans are well advanced following a six month feasibility study last year, which has not been publicly revealed.
But Eden chief David Harland has dropped several clues about how the eco-visitor attraction will work in Dundee.
It plans to create the “nine new guilds of Dundee” – with each having its own identity and embassy. Some locations will be permanent, some will ‘pop-up’.
Together they will create a trail of sites, encouraging people to explore different parts of the city.
Navigators, myth makers and alchemists
In an online presentation, Mr Harland said: “We haven’t announced the outcomes of our feasibility study. I am going to hint at a few things and leave you wanting more.
“We hope to be out in the next couple of months with specific sites and information from the feasibility.
“We have come up with the concept of Dundee’s nine new guilds. Things like growers and navigators, myth makers and alchemists.
“We wanted to recognise that these trades, these guilds, had their place in the future of Dundee.
“Each of these trades, these guilds, could have their own connection with communities and they may well have their own embassies which could pop up from time to time. May be permanent, some of them.
“They would encourage people to get to parts of the city they hadn’t seen before. These are little hints of what we are planning.”
Trail of ‘must see’ attractions
The proposed themes are: healers, growers, navigators, myth makers, noticers, alchemists, celebrators, menders and re-sourcerors.
Each would have colours, crests, badges and certificates to offer members.
Every guild would have a ‘must see’ quality based on events, designs or installations within.
Together they would create a trail, with programmes to encourage visiting them all. They would offer seasonal and non-seasonal programming.
Permanent guild halls
But Mr Harland said the upcoming proposals would also have a “big bang” to drive people into Dundee in the form of permanent guild halls.
“One of the problems is it’s difficult to have a dispersed model when you do what we do,” he added during the Invest in Dundee webinar.
“So we then had to come back to thinking about these guilds. About how they interact with spaces. How do we give people reasons to come to the city? The big bang as well.
“Then you get into having guild halls – in the plural. These will be encompassed within buildings but very much telling the story of our interdependence on the natural world.”
In artists’ impressions one of the guild halls is called the look out with a huge screen overlooking the Port of Dundee.
Another, named the lush bunker, shows plants growing from floor to ceiling. The third drawing, called the seam, has a focus around mining.
Project could be delivered in 2024
Mr Harland said he was hopeful Eden Project could be in Dundee in 2024 – the first time a date for the project has been revealed.
This is also the timeframe for the proposed esports arena at Dundee Waterfront.
Eden hopes to fund the project through a mixture of private and public funding as well as philanthropy.
The impact of Eden’s Cornwall attraction has been huge on the local economy.
In the past 20 years, more than 20 million people through its doors, generating £2 billion for the economy.
Hopes are high of an impact on Dundee on a similar scale to the V&A.
A city looking to the future
Mr Harland said the Eden Project Dundee plans were the result of a huge amount of work.
“Our brief was could we look here and see if there was a way to tell a story in Scotland, based in Dundee,” he said.
“We have talked and talked to people, literally hundreds of interviews. What a passionate place Dundee is and Dundonians are.
“We found a city looking forward to the future. We also found there are hidden gems.
“Fantastic universities, the James Hutton Institute – which, if you’re into growing and the green stuff, is an amazing resource – as well as being a UNESCO City of Design.
“We took inspiration from the history. People talk about jam, jute and journalism and we wondered about what else we wanted to add into its future.
“People are very much looking to the future and trying to drive equality across the city while building on some of the heritage that’s there.”
He said the next phase of the project would involve setting up the guilds and additional design work.
