. . . Aone Farm . . .
BaO teamed-up with Ground-up on a rather atypical masterplanning project in Yantai Shandong. A large site with existing farming fields, stepped hills, apple orchards, and forests was to be transformed by the clients into a zone dedicated to organic farming, agri-tourism, nature education, and ecological leisure activities. Working alongside an agriculture specialist, we developed a holistic project with a mixture of low-tech ecological agriculture, natural ecosystems, cyclic resources management, as well as high-tech amenities such as two large greenhouses housing aquaponics and aeroponics cultivations.
The whole site was to become an experimental ground for the development of forward-looking agricultural techniques. Existing conditions and plantations were preserved, diversified through the development of companion cropping, strengthened in their fauna and flora. Some new environments such as the constructed wetlands filtering, cleaning and redistributing the river water where necessary, were also set-up in order to enable the whole site to be working as a cooperative autonomous system.
A series of small-scale ecological buildings were disseminated within this new array of natural and productive ecosystems. A recreation center bridging a small valley, semi-sunken orchard small houses, a restaurant on a retention pond, forest pavilions, an apple vinegar and probiotic drinks workshops, soy transformation and mushrooms production halls, large aquaponics and aeroponics greenhouses with an integrated restaurant, a herbarium and experimental organic agriculture exhibitions, a children forest summer camps center, wood and earth eco-builders’ workshops, permaculture learning center, organic fertilizers atelier, mobile chicken coop, mobile goat grazing sheds, composting stations, mountain lodges, lake huts, etc… Although most of those units were rather humble in scale, they were forming an extremely complete and multifaceted set of amenities permitting botanical and agricultural learning, leisure, and pleasure.
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