Unicorn Eco Foundation

The Perpetual Garden Project

At the very centre of the Unicorn project, the plans are for a totally self sustaining “Perpetual Garden”. This inspirational teaching facility, under a large transparent dome-like structure, will be located on a two acre site and constructed from locally sourced timber from managed forests.

These will consist of thin strips of wood laminated together to form parabolic arches, thereby negating the need to use materials with a high carbon value and embodied energy, whilst also demonstrating an economically viable use for Irish  trees that are at the “thinnings” stage of growth.

At present, the Unicorn Foundation is demonstrating the feasibility of this process in the construction of wooden arches for an “Earthship” style greenhouse; a project that will become the nursery centre for many of the plants within the Perpetual Garden.

Site for the Perpetual Garden.

The facility will demonstrate the feasibility of growing foods all year round in our Irish climate that would normally have traveled thousands of miles to reach our tables. We hope to show that locally grown produce can be of a far greater diversity than that which is currently available from the “home grown marketplace”. The huge indoor garden site will display a wide range of tropical and semi-tropical fruits, plants and herbs, both culinary and medicinal. Crops such as bananas, oranges, avocado, lemons, grapefruits, melons, kiwis and grapes will be just some of the fruits grown in this display thereby negating their carbon cargo costs. 

The Perpetual Garden aims to show all the aspects of the life-cycle of food production and waste recycling processes that sustain our lives without detriment to the environment. We intend to demonstrate this process through all its stages, beginning with the humble, yet mighty, worm providing the basic nutrients for the garden’s soil and hydroponics display, as a growing medium for the plants and trees, right to the restaurant table where visitors can taste the results from the organic international cuisine on offer. Much of the food on the menu will have been harvested from the flora of the Perpetual Garden. All cooked food waste then goes back to feed the worms in our wormeries and the raw food will be composted, both then to be used as part of an integral soil  building and nutrition program.

Even the output from the lavatories and sinks etc. will be processed on site in accordance with our environmental methodology. Grey and black water waste from the facility will go into our methane producing bio digester display model and reed bed water treatment system. The gas produced will provide fuel to cook with and the processed and dried residue from the tanks will become fertilizer for grasslands and trees in our orchard.

All the power requirements for the structure will be supplied from renewable sources within our land.

Within the structure there will be varied water features, designed to act as heat sinks for regulating the humidity of the atmosphere and to aid keeping the temperature at a constant level. Running water will serve to de-ionize the air and to oxygenate the aquatic plants.
As a part of this project, members of the Unicorn Ecological Foundation have been researching and creating a series of “Flowforms” for the specific purpose of water oxygenation. 

The mediums for the teaching curriculum will vary from “hi-tech” audio visual touch sensitive displays to actors as characters entertaining and informing visitors around specific areas of the Garden. Our aim is to educate in a way that will appeal to both children and adults.

The Unicorn Foundation, being a charity, will be funding tours from schools and colleges as part of our environmental educational policy. Visitors from the general public will however pay an admission fee to help with costs and Garden maintenance, funds from the restaurant and café will also be re-invested into the centre. It is envisaged that the building will be self financing within ten years.

Within the Garden project it is also planned to provide a forum area for workshops and lectures on raising environmental awareness issues and to facilitate the educational methodology of the Unicorn Foundation which will incorporate mini AV lectures on carbon balance calculation. There will also be an area provided for various environmental companies to exhibit their technologies to bring them into public awareness.

A holistic treatment centre also within the structure, will offer a wide range of therapies, and where possible, using plants and their by-products that have been grown within the Perpetual Garden.

 Visitors will be able to relax in a Mediterranean-style taverna/cafe with a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice or coffee from “dome-grown” beans whilst sitting under a green canopy of live plants near to the water feature of the heat sink pool.

 To summarize:

The centre will probably be the most environmental building in the Republic of Ireland, demonstrating many types of the latest ecological technologies. Visitors to the Perpetual Garden project will be informed about a vast array of subjects such as climate change and the human impact on the planet, with solutions to many problems that have arisen, whilst luxuriating in a paradise-like setting.

Primarily the centre when built will help facilitate the education of schools, colleges, university level students and the public in the “best practice” methodology for the planets’ dwindling resources.