Peatlands cover three million hectares, or 12% of the UK landscape. Within their soils is stored some 3,000 million tonnes of carbon, 20 times more than the UK’s entire forest biomass. Despite their significance, the peatland landscapes of the Peak District are among the most heavily damaged. Years of industrial pollution has raised the soil pH to levels in which little can survive. Elsewhere the landscape is systematically burnt, overgrazed, and heavily drained, inadvertently releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere and denuding the landscape of vegetation, leading to catastrophic soil erosion. A Peat Protopia is a research and restoration facility dedicated to furthering our understanding of peat, peatland habitats, their carbon capture capacities and ecological importance. Sited in Buckton Vale quarry on the edge of Saddleworth Moor, the proposal demonstrates the power of peat through an architecture in constant conversation with landscape. Acting as a mechanical mediator the building systematically shifts physical material through a cyclical process of saturation, while continually questioning wider discussions of land management, land ownership and rewilding.