Craig Mitchell
This project is set within the interior of Portugal and proposes innovative solutions to the problems of anthropocentric and biocentric desertification. The intention is to re structure the role of vegetation as a catalyst for an emergent urbanism. In the 20th century the relationship between agriculture and resources collapsed and was replaced by a monoculture of forestry plantations. This project utilises the degradation of the land, following plantation felling as the stage to introduce systems, which will recharge the soil/water complex as a first stage in establishing a new devolved urban system, which is resilient and adaptable. The key component is the establishment of a series of "land bowls", which through the use of water retaining polymers and artificial seeding mats aim to re-establish the complex Iberian woodland system, which in the past provided food and materials. Overlaid and interwoven in to this structure is a secondary system of highly productive plants, which will supplement the Iberian woodland complex. This is a multi-scale approach, with initially the "cabin in the forest" as the first stage of an emergent urbanism, which will evolve in time to develop production, processing and selling nodes as part of a re-emergent urbanism.
