Four environmental groups are to compete for £50 million of lottery money

Final four in £50m lottery race

Four environmental groups are to compete for £50 million of lottery money, the largest single amount ever awarded by the Big Lottery Fund.

A public vote on ITV and online will decide the contest between the Eden Project, sustainable transport charity Sustrans, the Sherwood Forest Living Legends and a Black Country Urban Park.

THE EDEN PROJECT - THE EDGE

Plans for the Edge building at the Eden Project Author Philip Pullman will be one of the designers

The Eden Project creators have big ideas of how the £50m grant could take their multi-award winning attraction to another level. The Edge project will explore what it is to be human and why past civilisations have collapsed, says Eden's chief executive Tim Smit.

Inside a three-level building there will be a vast oasis dedicated to arid climate - or "Blade Runner territory" - and beneath will be chambers with displays whose designers will include musician Peter Gabriel and children's author Philip Pullman.

One of the chambers will be built out of loud speakers. Audio recordings in every one of the earth's languages on the subject of love will be played simultaneously. The point, says Mr Smit, is to create a human song.

The Eden Project, a so-called living theatre of plants and people, in St Austell in Cornwall, has attracted nine million visitors since opening in 2001. Mr Smit accepts the Edge will increase visitor numbers and the attraction's contribution to the South West's economy."But that's not the reason why we are doing it - we want to build it as a symbol of cultural change," he says...