Currently, the building industry is complicit in resource depletion, excessive CO2 emissions (38% globally (UN Environment Programme, 2020)) and the nitrogen crisis. This contributes to negative changes on a global scale, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Using wood as a dominant building material would have a positive effect on these problems. The Netherlands used to produce wood on a large scale, but a shift in the functions that forests had to accommodate caused production to become secondary.

Currently, there is no circular system in the Netherlands in which landscapes produce materials that can be used in the common building industry on a local scale.

The main goal for this project is to show a future in which the production of wood and the forests that go with it play a central role in our day to day landscapes. This will be done by answering the research question: “How can a sustainable and multifunctional production forest be designed in the Netherlands?”
The current nitrogen crisis and the expected buy-out of farmers who run intensive cattle farms around Natura 2000 areas, will be used as a starting point for the design location.

The outcome shows three types of production forests that differ in accommodating five aspects that are valued in forests: production, recreation, biodiversity, climate resilience and experience of landscape. This way a new idea can be formed on how forests can be productive, while also providing space for animals and humans in the Netherlands. The design is tested on sand soil in Hattem, but could be applied to any agricultural land.

The discussion elaborates on the reason why production forests are not planted on a large scale to provide a circular material producing system. Taking into account: the current relationship between humans and materials, the difficulty of circular thinking due to the complexity of current systems, the long-term thinking that has disappeared in our culture and the unpredictability of the future due to rapid global changes.