(Image: BOOM! Landscape)
There is demand for biobased construction materials in the Netherlands, and production of these materials already partly takes place in the Netherlands. However, crops and wood needed for the production of these materials are sourced from abroad. Why, actually, if we can also produce it ourselves? In response to a strategic exploration on the future of the biobased construction sector in the Netherlands, Nature^Squared has started an enquiry into the possibilities for farmers for cultivating crops and planting trees that are needed as inputs for the biobased production system. We work closely together with BOOM! Landscape. Together, we estimate the possibility of designing a mosaic landscape in which the cultivation of crops for the biobased sector play a leading part.
With this project, we hope to at the same time solve problems related to the current agricultural practices. On the one hand, these conventional practices present great challenges to the Dutch landscape by contributing to problems like subsidence, desiccation that severely threaten current methods of land use and adjacent natural areas. On the other hand, there is high demand for sustainable and renewable building materials that are produced locally. After project completion we therefore hope to be able to pinpoint where the obstacles lie that obstruct a more sustainable form of agriculture and land use, and to show how these obstacles can be overcome.
This project builds on the report “Biobased Zuid-Holland” by BOOM! Landscape. For this project, we work together with the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Affairs, province of South-Holland, province of Flevoland, province of North-Brabant and the Board of Government Advisors.
