Why the world needs the Edge

Our planet is changing, bringing new challenges to the way we live.

To adapt we will need the best of our imagination and creativity, our technology and science and our humanity and vision.

We will need strong communities and a clear understanding of what is valuable in life. 

In answer to this, the awe-inspiring oasis, desert, water gardens and underground chambers inside the Edge will become somewhere to

•  inspire and explore new solutions
•  rethink our values and our goals
•  work together to create a positive future

The point of the Edge is that while resources may be limited, the imagination isn’t.

The building will create a setting for asking questions fundamental to our future

• What makes humans content?
• How can we still find richness in our lives without rampant consumption?
• What lessons from the past can inform the future?

We will look back…
To understand how people coped with change in the past

We will look at people living 'on the edge' today…
To learn from the ingenious solutions they have put into practice

We will look forward…
To explore how we can find the spirit, imagination and knowledge to adapt to the challenges facing us.

The Edge won’t be a building about climate change, it will be a building because of climate change.

'I believe that if we get it right, the Edge could be one of the most important buildings ever built. Not because of its structural form, but because of its ambition to create a setting for asking big questions of interest to all of us: What makes humans content? What lessons from the past can inform the future? And what might great look like? The answers to most of them lie not in the realm of technology, but in the building of healthy, safe and inspired communities drawn together by a narrative for the future they can believe in. In truth it is the theatre for the development of this story that we are wanting to build.'

Tim Smit, CEO, Eden Project