Manufac(tree)

The rural villages of Spain are slowly emptying. The wave of abandonment has lasted more than a century, and the landscape around them is barren: shaped by centuries of overexploitation, grazing, forest fires and an arid climate, now sharpened by the growing threat of climate change. Put simply, no water means no work, and no work means no people.

The project proposes to break that cycle by planting trees — improving the soil, recharging the aquifers, and giving the village a different outlook. The old wine caves are sealed and turned into reservoirs for a tree nursery. Between the water-storing caves and the rows of saplings sits a community building that holds everything needed to raise the trees before they are planted in the surrounding hills, and adds what the village still lacks: a meeting hall, a library, a place to work together.

Only an engaged community can carry out a reforestation of this kind. Solving the problems of the Spanish countryside means improving the lives of its people and the vitality of its landscape at once. The two go together.