“The Mindfulness City will be a sustainable city. To be mindful is to be aware — to perform best,” said Giulia Frittoli, partner and head of landscape at BIG. The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked Buddhist country in the eastern Himalayas, nestled between China and India. It covers 14,000 square miles and has a population of nearly 800,000.
The Royal Office of Bhutan asked BIG, Arup, and Cistri to develop a plan for a new Mindfulness City in Gelephu in southern Bhutan, near the border with India. The city will span 386 square miles and include a new international airport, railway connections, hydroelectric dam, university, spiritual center, and public spaces.
“This site was selected because it is one of the flatest areas of Bhutan.” The site was also chosen to minimize impact on the forest, which covers 70 percent of the country, making the country a biodiversity hotspot.
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Gross National Happiness as Public Policy: The Case of Bhutan“Bhutan has this extra respect for nature. Forests are protected in its constitution,” Frittoli said. And the site’s flat character enables Bhutan to build a new airport. “As an international gateway, it is an ideal location.”
The planning and design team’s novel plan aims to not only preserve the forest but also make room for rivers and elephants. “We started with a landscape point of view before an urban point of view. We started from the environment,” Frittoli said.
The site of the future city is laced with 35 rivers. When glaciers in the Himalayas melt, the rivers widen and deepen. Bhutan also has a monsoon season. And with climate change, more water is expected. BIG proposed designing the city around these variable river flows. “We examined how the rivers expand and contract. The landscape is not fixed; it is a living organism. We will make space for the water.”
Bhutan also has nearly 700 elephants. They move from the highlands down to the rivers and then south to India. So Frittoli and her team proposed natural corridors around the rivers, which can be up to half a mile wide.
“The corridors are nature getaways. This creates space the water and elephants need.” Spreading from the corridors will be a series of bioswales that will help channel stormwater. And the plan will create space for water to support urban rice paddies and agricultural fields. “This will create local jobs and increase economic growth,” Frittoli said.
Parts of Gelephu are somewhat economically depressed. There are abandoned rice paddies and farms, Frittoli said. This is due to labor shortages. “His Majesty is concerned that young people are leaving the country for Southeast Asia and Australia. They don’t see a future path in Bhutan due to the lack of educational and job opportunities. His Majesty wants to bring them back.”
“The Mindfulness City will provide white-collar jobs in research and innovation. It will open up Bhutan and bring opportunities, so young people stay,” Frittoli said.
The Mindfulness City is guided by the tenets of the country’s influential Gross National Happiness (GNP) Index, which includes nine areas:
- Psychological Well-being
- Health
- Education
- Living Standards
- Time-Use
- Ecological Diversity and Resilience
- Good Governance
- Cultural Diversity and Resilience
- Community Vitality
In addition, Bhutan is a carbon-positive country, absorbing more carbon than it emits. Its commitment to sustainability guided the planning of the new city, which will maintain a carbon-positive standard and use locally sourced, natural materials. Buildings will be approximately six stories high and made of stone, mass timber, and bamboo.
The upper part of the new city will be mostly rice paddies and agricultural fields. Much of the urban density will be found in the southern portion of the new city, closer to India. A series of bridges spanning the rivers will serve as major hubs and east-west connectors. There will be nine types of bridges, reflecting the tenets of Bhutan’s GNP Index.
The bridges will provide transportation connections, produce energy, and serve as key gathering spaces. One will be a Vajrayana spiritual center, which will give visitors a chance to experience the daily practice of monks. Other bridges will house a healthcare center, a university, a cultural center, and a market.
The plan proposes a new dam for generating hydropower. Bhutan is powered by 100 percent hydropower, and 90 percent of that is sold to India. The dam will power the new city and provide additional income.
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed over the next two to five years. Frittoli thinks the plan will be fully realized in 20-30 years and grow organically through multiple phases. It will require public-private partnerships and increased investment.
She also commented how landscape architects at BIG — a multidisciplinary firm with more than 700 designers worldwide — are leading the massive project. “In 2021, I was made partner at BIG, which allowed landscape to be seen equally. We went from five landscape architects to 55 globally. Landscape architects are now at the table when projects start. Given the challenges facing the planet, we need more landscape architects leading.”
This article was originally published on The Dirt.
