Underground Forest

Underground Forest offers a simple yet radical solution to decarbonize one of the world's most polluting sectors: construction. The principle rests on a technical substitution that is almost invisible to the end occupant, yet massive in its climate impact: replacing concrete foundation piles — used to build on soft soils such as peat and clay — with PEFC-certified Norway spruce wooden piles. Once driven below the groundwater table, into an anoxic (oxygen-free) environment, these wooden trunks stop decomposing: the carbon they contain stays locked away for more than 100 years, potentially for centuries. The building then literally rests on a underground forest, frozen in time.