This project addresses the issue of the contaminated soil in the forest and agricultural area of Fukushima. The current decontamination method is to remove the contaminated top layer of soil, then contain and store the soil in bags on-site.

The long-term decontamination strategy is called mycoremediation, which is based on introducing fungi to remediate the toxic soil. A radiotrophic fungus named Cryptococcus neoformans that can absorb and convert radiation into chemical energy for growth will be used.

This design provides a system to incorporate the mycoremediation process at an architectural scale. It includes the techniques of vertical farming for storage, fungus planting for decontamination and logistics for coal mining.

Furthermore, since the system is used to treat radioactive substances, the location of the factory should be far from human activities. Therefore, a remote forest area is chosen. The topographic data of the natural environment becomes a guide for spatial planning and form generation of the design. It helped the factory develop an architectural language to blend the building into the natural environment.

Over time, the system will start to renew the contaminated soil in Fukushima and the factory itself will become part of the landscape after multiple decades.