For many years he has wanted to make a sculpture whose mass would almost totally fill an architectural space offering an awe-inspiring experience.
The search for a stone big enough to be turned into this most challenging art work and then the painstaking and intricate process of fashioning it into an ovoid and carving 1,800 nodules into its surface has spanned four years.
Today (June 11) the silver-grey stone is due to be lowered by giant crane through the circular roof of the Eden Project's education building to sit within the bell-shaped chamber specifically designed and built to receive it.
It will be a slow, precise process. The gap between the top rim of the chamber and the edge of the sculpture will be a matter of inches as Seed descends into the centre of the space.
Heralding the arrival of the sculpture, Eden's chief executive Tim Smit said: "Seed is the perfect embodiment of Eden's creative approach to public engagement. This is a fantastic work of art that will stand forever as a symbol of our generation's recognition that we are part of nature, not apart from it, and that to survive we must learn to work with the grain of nature."
The sculpture will be celebrated with a concert featuring Peter Gabriel on June 20 and officially opened on June 21 when visitors to Eden will be able to experience the stone within its chamber.
Like Magritte's painting 'The Listening Room' in which an over-sized apple fills a room, there will be a surreal dimension to the experience of seeing 'Seed' occupying the space and coming to within 250 cm of the walls.
Seed makes a play on scale, offering an Alice in Wonderland-like experience: Alice who grows to fill a room and also shrinks to be dwarfed by ordinary domestic objects.
In the manner of Rothko who stipulated the dimensions and light conditions of the rooms in which his work should be seen, the chamber and art work were conceived as one.
Peter Randall-Page very much wanted to separate this inner sanctum from the bustle outside to give the chamber a meditative and contemplative atmosphere.
Seed will be lit from the natural daylight filtering down through the central aperture, meaning that the weather and seasons will play across the sculpture's surface.
From the very outset, Peter Randall-Page worked closely with Jolyon Brewis of Grimshaw architects, who designed the world famous Biomes at Eden and was lead architect on The Core itself.
Peter said: "The shape of the chamber echoes that of the stone, like a seed in its pod. The space between the sculpture and the walls will create extraordinary spatial drama. Being in a confined space with such a monumental mass should be exciting.
"The whole process has been an enormous challenge because of the sheer scale and complexity of the sculpture.
"Many people have been involved in helping me bring this project to fruition: quarrymen, engineers, architects, computer experts but particularly my own remarkable team of technicians and stone carvers."
Jolyon Brewis said: “Seed was not only a fitting centrepiece for the building but was a crucial part of it.
"The design of this building has been a true collaboration between architects and an artist. Peter Randall-Page has been involved in setting the geometry of the structure as well as the design of the sculpture inside.
"The roof of the building is based on spiral geometries found in nature. They can be seen in the heads of sunflowers and many other plants. They are linked to the system of proportion used in classical architecture and have a well-known mathematical basis.
"Peter's sculpture will sit in a specially designed room at the heart of the building and will be carved with the same pattern of spirals.
"This will be much more than a sculpture inside a building. Art and architecture combine in a way that is rarely achieved. This should be one of the finest rooms in the world."
Explaining how the sculpture is integral to the building, Eden's Director of Learning Dr Jo Elworthy said: "Seed and the Core roof pay homage to nature, efficiency and collaboration. Take the sunflower as an example. The giant bloom is made of hundreds of little flowers that combine together to create a massive functional landing pad for bees. Its efficiency and strength symbolises what can be achieved when people work closely, both together and with the grain of nature.
"We're planting the Seed in the middle of the Core to symbolise the next stage in Eden's development: to sow ideas for the 21st century and work towards a world we want to live in.”
She said that the Core building was a perfect marriage of art, technology and science and was educational in form as well as function.
"It is crafted from natural materials and is an exemplar of sustainability in its approach, design and actual construction. A centre for learning and discovery, the Core contains permanent and temporary exhibitions, hosts events, including workshops, talks and short films, is home to Eden's innovative schools programmes and has a tasty little café with a solar terrace that will soon look down on the Seed."
Dr Elworthy added: "Nature has a fundamental blueprint which goes beyond DNA. We have translated that blueprint into the structure of Eden's Core. Seed is the last piece of the puzzle and the start of a new beginning. We can now work on sowing ideas for the 21st century."
Grimshaw's chairman Sir Nicholas Grimshaw said: "I think it is a wonderful thing when a work of art and a building come together like this. The geometry generated from the Fibonacci series unites the two but until Peter's wonderful sculpture arrived the building seemed to lack a vital organ."
Press Release - Eden Project
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