Archinect - News2024-05-09T17:12:50-04:00https://archinect.com/news/article/150409181/big-s-mindfulness-city-concept-seeks-to-deliver-new-forms-of-prosperity-to-southern-bhutan
BIG's ‘Mindfulness City’ concept seeks to deliver new forms of prosperity to southern Bhutan Josh Niland2023-12-20T20:00:00-05:00>2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00
<img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/14/1434a584b397df196affc5cff37fefeb.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Details of a new master plan from <a href="https://archinect.com/firms/cover/39902/big-bjarke-ingels-group" target="_blank">Bjarke Ingels Group</a> (BIG) for Bhutan’s future Gelephu Special Administration Region have been made public this week in the South Asian country.</p>
<p>‘Mindfulness City’ is a multifaceted economic hub designed by the firm’s Landscape and Urban Design Team to coincide with sustainability principles and the pioneering Gross National Happiness Index (GNH) concept that has been championed by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and the Bhutanese government since 2008. </p>
<figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/f2/f222a640b222e61be52c66d903ad12c0.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/f2/f222a640b222e61be52c66d903ad12c0.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Rendering: Brick Visual</figcaption></figure><figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/d4/d47b3411c2dbfc504b781d42eac213d4.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/d4/d47b3411c2dbfc504b781d42eac213d4.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Rendering: Brick Visual</figcaption></figure><p>The 1,000-square-kilometer (386-square-mile) plan calls for the construction of a new international airport, hydroelectric dam, railway infrastructure, and university campus near the southern border with India. Ribbons of neighborhood-scale developments will run like tendrils influenced by the confluence of 35 different rivers and streams that pulse through the site, with densities increasing along the gradient from its northern rural highlands to mor...</p>