Tim Smit

Sir Timothy Bartel Smit KBE (born 25 September 1954) is a Dutch-born British businessman, famous for his work on the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project, both in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

Tim Smit was born in Scheveningen, the son of airline pilot Jan Smit and his English wife. He was educated in England at Vinehall School,East Sussex, and Cranbrook School, Kent, before going on to study archaeology and anthropology at Durham.

He worked as an archaeologist before taking an unexpected leap into the music business, working as both a song-writer and producer receiving seven platinum and gold discs.

In 1987 he moved with his family to Cornwall and became involved with Rob Poole, John Nelson and The Lost Gardens of Heligan. During his time at Heligan, Smit wrote a popular book about the project.

Later he dreamt up and then created the Eden Project, near St Austell, an £80 million initiative to build two transparent biomes in an old china clay pit near the village of Bodelva. The biomes contain different eco-climates; rainforest and Mediterranean. The outside area is also described as a biome and features areas such as "Wild Cornwall". Eden aims to educate people about environmental matters and encourages a greater understanding and empathy with these matters. Smit raised the needed funds and was the driving force, pulling the team of people together to build what has been described as 'the eighth wonder of the world' ; the site design was by Nicholas Grimshaw. The Eden Project is said to have contributed over £1 billion into the Cornish economy.

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