Endangered butterflies will get the spotlight treatment at the new Butterfly World attraction in London, allowing millions of visitors per year to learn about the 10,000+ butterflies that can be found throughout the planet. The project will also feature educational and research facilities, a restaurant, café and shop.
The constuction, a butterfly-shaped development, will be near [...]

Endangered butterflies will get the spotlight treatment at the new Butterfly World attraction in London, allowing millions of visitors per year to learn about the 10,000+ butterflies that can be found throughout the planet. The project will also feature educational and research facilities, a restaurant, café and shop.

The constuction, a butterfly-shaped development, will be near St Albans in the UK, just a short distance from central London, and its centerpiece will be a translucent dome, similar in style to the Eden Project domes, which will house the exotic butterflies.

The main structure will be surrounded on all sides by gardens featuring antennae walkways, a chrysalis pond and a spiral proboscis walk - each with specially selected nectar food plants to attract indigenous butterflies.

Work on the project is expected to start in April 2008, and the first areas of the attraction will open in June 2009, with more areas opening over the following years.

Property developer Clive Farrell said: “I wanted to build one more butterfly house but on a gigantic scale and incorporating everything I have learned in 30 years about butterflies and the idea of a massive dome emerged.

“The dome will be big enough to contain seven Stonehenge sites and it will have in it the replica remains of a lost Mayan city and a tropical rainforest. It will be surrounded by the best wildflower meadows in Britain and 12 competition gardens which will change annually and incorporate the latest thinking on sustainable, contemporary garden design.”

The recreated rainforest will have ponds, waterfalls, and rope walk-ways overlooking the rainforest canopy while below ground level sections of the dome will be submerged to incorporate caverns featuring creatures such as giant spiders and scorpions.

As well as offering research opportunities, facilities such as this help generate awareness about endangered creatures that aren’t often on the radar, and will play a vital role in protecting some of our less noticeable wildlife.