BIOPHILIC VILLAGE

Group Project Honours Competition Project Category: Urban + Ecology

The brief was to create a lifestyle estate on 2nd avenue Summerstrand that will create revenue for Nelson Mandela University Investment Co (NMUI Co). This lifestyle estate needed to consist of a boutique hotel, liferight units and high end living units. The result should be an ecofriendly, green lifestyle and integrated community. The main purpose of this development is to create revenue for NMUI co and to provide continuous training for the students in the Hospitality program at NMU.

My teams vision was to create a vibrant and connected urban biophilic village through innovative sustainable and regenerative design. Our core aim is to blur boundaries through an integrated system of communities.

We were driven by the desire to create a village; as that creates a safe, connected place where the residents will have a sense of responsibility and ownership. A village that encourages movement, human interaction, connection and most importantly: a village for all. The residential areas where designed as a each a village within a larger village. Centralized green spaces, semi-public recreational spaces and passive green routes were some of the ways we achieved this. The house itself is also a village, with its own green spaces and systems.