AGRISYMBIOSIS

Masters project: design for a symbiotic agribusiness | Agri-Symbiosis, ‘de Peel’ | 130 ha land + 6,6 ha built | sept. 2009

Amsterdam Academy of Architecture

Committee: Chris Scheen (mentor), Yttje Feddis (Dutch national Landscape Advisor), Rob Hootsmans

In the national reserve ‘de Peel’ growth of sphagnum (peat moss) is stagnating in the area owing to an excess of nutrients in the water. This condition is called eutrophication and if left unchanged this will attract plants that thrive on high nutrition intake, like f.e. algae. In the cultivated growth of horticulture crops, also a high amount of nutrition is used in the irrigation water.

In my design this ideal water plant growth is used in food production and creates a symbiosis between economics and nature. After water is used for plants in glasshouses, for irrigation of farmland and the growth of algae, the by-product – potable water– is ideal for the moss which thrives in a nutrient depleted environment.

Three main typologies — the tent, the cave, and the pit — are accommodated in a rationally arranged cluster oriented in an east-west direction for optimal exposure to the sun. The result is an optimal exchange of amenities and space and the creation of specific climate conditions. These strips are connected on one side by spits to the water route and are open on the other side for optimal exchange with the landscape.