The Eden Project in Cornwall is planning a £67m climate change-based attraction called The Edge.

According to a spokesperson, the new building will not be a building about climate change, but rather a building because of climate change.

The extension – which won’t be another bubble-shaped Biome like the rest of the site – will aim to look at how people have coped with social transformations in the past and how people and plants are living with climate change now.

It will exhibit the solutions they have come up with, as well as look to the future to see what will need to be done to respond the challenge of climate change.

Tim Smit, chief executive of the Eden Project, said: “The Edge is a building, an environment and an experience that focuses on two major themes: what does living within limits mean and what can we learn from looking at a past that has shaped us psychologically to become the most adaptive species of all.”

The building itself will be designed by the Eden Project’s original architect, Nicholas Grimshaw, and be set in a yet-to-be-reclaimed part of the china clay pit in which the attraction is based. Its operational systems will “demonstrate options for energy supply, water conservation and waste management that will act as models of how we might live in the next decades”.

The plans for The Edge will be submitted to Big Lottery Fund’s £50m Living Landmarks award by the end of May, before going to a public vote if the Big Lottery Fund committee puts the scheme on the shortlist in October. Details: www.theedenproject.com