ABSTRACT
The Earth Centre was conceived as a visitor attraction providing both education and entertainment around environmental issues. It exists on a 300-acre site in one of the most environmentally devastated areas in the country: the coalfields of South Yorkshire. The masterplan for the Earth Centre (Figure 11.1) was to provide a large-scale visitor attraction providing new landscape for demonstrating the principles of ecological regeneration through a vibrant series of gardens, exhibitions which describe ecological problems and solutions, and architecture which demonstrates the potential of low-energy environmental design principles. Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects were appointed initially to help with the masterplan process, and thereafter as one of four architects working on the project were given the task of designing major buildings on the site.
