Located on the southwestern tip of England, the Eden Project is an expansive global garden that spans the size of 30 football fields. The two biomes are dedicated to two distinct climates: the rainforest, replicating tropical jungle climates from Southeast Asia and West Africa to South America, and the Mediterranean, boasting olive groves, orange trees, and cascading waterfalls.
The outdoor garden is home to a wide variety of plants, from sunflowers and miniature iris to magnolia. In the summer, they host live musical performances dubbed the Eden Sessions, which have hosted everyone from Peter Gabriel and PJ Harvey to Vampire Weekend and Florence and the Machine. A concert in a garden wonderland? We're already planning our trip.
Taking over the massive velodrome that hosted several 1976 Olympic events, the Montreal Biodome was converted from 1989 to 1992, and is now home to four distinct replicas of ecosystems from across the Americas: the South American Tropical Rainforest, the Laurentian Maple forest, the Labrador Coast of the Arctic, and the Sub-Antarctic Islands.
What makes this biodome particularly special is the wildlife that inhabits each area, from macaws and lynx to stingrays and penguins. In all, there are over 250 animal and 500 plant species within the space—a lot more than you could ever hope to see in one visit anywhere else.
Gardens by the Bay
Adjacent to Singapore's Marina Reservoir, Gardens by the Bay consists of three expansive structures, built with the lofty goal of enhancing the quality of life in the region through the beauty of nature. Since opening in 2011, it has become a must-see attraction for both locals and tourists, and has welcomed over 20 million visitors.
The architecture of the Bay South Garden, the largest of the structures, draws inspiration from an orchid, the national flower of the country. It houses the Flower Dome, showcasing Mediterranean and semi-arid tropical regions; the Cloud Forest, replicating the tropical mountain regions; and The Supertree Grove, a series of vertical gardens reaching more than 160 feet high.
If you've ever seen the movie Bio-Dome, you'll be somewhat familiar with the story of Biosphere 2—it just so happens that the movie was based on it. Conceived as a completely closed-system experiment, a group of eight researchers lived within the biosphere for two years, from 1991 to 1993. Though the venture was not entirely successful, it did leave behind an ecological system that is still used for research today, not to mention a totally snapshot-worthy oasis in the middle of the Arizona desert.
The geodesic structure contains various biomes each with its own purpose, from an agricultural area and a tropical rainforest to a million-gallon ocean that has its own coral reef. It has allmost pretty much every ecosystem you would need to survive were there some kind of apocalyptic event—almost.