There are plenty of interesting qualities to Eden project. We can talk about bold iconic architectural vision, of the kind that usually does not fit well neither with social nor spatial sensitivities, but here it somehow seems to do the job of equally empowering and taming nature. Probably the initial aspiration to test out closed ecosystems has waned a bit. We can also speak of legacy of Buckminster Fuller and his legacy and Grimshaw’s hig-tech architecture. My guess is, that controversies were somehow tackled by strong environmentalist agenda and educational programming. The project has expanded to a couple new locations, and is programmed to have some more.
It is an old project, which was among my student architectural references more than 20 years ago, so it is nice to see it relevant. I was reminded about it by a nice and quite solarpunk-ish (political and hopeful) interview in The Guardian.