TORN I SKOG

Abstract: This project focuses on sustainable production. The monocultural large-scale agriculture and forestry contributes with great strain on nature in the form of deforestation and eutrophication. At the same time, production is a central part of rural supply, and inthe extension also for all residents of the country. Unlike the city where demand drives land prices to such an extent that it pays to build vertically, the typology of the countryside is rather characterized by the opposite. Still, the relatively low land value in the countryside is so important for the ecological and economic sustainability of the whole country. What would happen if we priced the ecological values in evaluation of rural land prices, could it also be possible to build vertically even there? With this as a starting point, I have designed a vertical aquaponic cultivation tower, which produces both vegetables and crops, but also fish and energy. The tower is clad with both solar cells and solar panels, which ensures a sustainable self-sufficient energy supply, while excess energy can also supply surrounding buildings and businesses. In this project, I have replaced a 110 ha large cultivation area with vertical cultivation towers corresponding to the same production capacity in crops but which to the surface only occupy 1.1 ha. My idea with the saved land is to allow it to return to nature, primeval forest in the long run. In addition to the obvious ecological benefits, a changed use of land can enable a place for recreation in the middle of this “tower forest”, something that the classic arable farming rarely allows to any great extent.