Peatlands are the largest natural store of carbon, but their waterlogged conditions often leads to their percetption as wastelands. The common underestimation of their importance in ecological systems has justified their drainage, releasing increasing volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A New Peatland Paradigm challenges misconceptions about land use, suggesting how paludiculture, a form of wet agriculture, could maintain carbon storage in peatlands.

This project proposes the restoration of degraded Scottish peatland and its conversion to productive wetland to produce common reed. To reverse misconceptions, the architecture embraces and celebrates the landscape’s deficiencies while restoring the water table to healthy conditions.

The scheme comprises two new agricultural building typologies: the Bothy and the Reed Library, both facilitating a method of landscape restoration and agricultural programme. The Bothy uses injection piles that hydrate deeper peat soil and provide temporary accommodation for field workers. The Reed Library dams water flow and stores the harvested reed, displaying the value gained from these misunderstood but otherwise mystical landscapes.