BIG designs Mindness City in Bhutan connected by ‘habitable bridges’ » Today Latest Stories
Danish architecture studio BIG has unveiled its masterplan for a 1,000-square-kilometre development in Bhutan that will include an international airport and a hydroelectric dam featuring a temple.
The project, named Mindness City, will be set up in Gelephu town near the Indian border in southern Bhutan and will be built around a series of bridges.
“Shaped by waterways, Gelefeu is becoming a land of bridges, connecting nature with people, past and future, local and global,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG.
“Like traditional dzong bridges, these habitable bridges are transformed into cultural monuments, doubling as transportation infrastructure alongside civic amenities.”
According to the studio, the project will be shaped by 35 rivers and streams running through the site with a series of “habitable bridges” linking different neighborhoods.
Each bridge is designed to be integrated with cultural, educational, recreational and infrastructural functions.
At the foot of the valley, an international airport will be built and its wooden terminal will serve as a bridge and runway rising across several rivers.
The other bridges will contain a university, a healthcare centre, a market and a Vajrayana spiritual centre, which will intersect the river.
The development also includes a hydroelectric dam that will include a temple. Described by the studio as a “man-made cliff,” the Sankosh Temple Dam will have a terraced wall that includes stairs and viewpoints.
“The Sankosh Temple Dam integrates the core values of the city into a cascading landscape of steps and falls, which will, like a 21st century Tiger’s Nest, be a man-made monument to the divine possibility of a sustained human existence on Earth. Transforming geometry into art and transforming the powers of Nature to power.
The buildings within the masterplan will be constructed from local materials including wood, stone and bamboo, and will have shapes that reference traditional Bhutanese architecture. It will be built along implemented paved streets.
The project will be surrounded by a series of rice fields designed to serve as biodiversity corridors.
The studio hopes that the masterplan will serve as a model for development in the country.
“The masterplan for Gelephu gives shape to His Majesty the King’s vision to create a city that will become a cradle of growth and innovation while remaining grounded in Bhutanese nature and culture,” Engels said.
“We imagine the Mindfulness City as a place that couldn’t be anywhere else,” he continued.
“Where nature is enhanced, agriculture is integrated, and traditions live and breathe, they are not only preserved but also developed.”
BIG, based in Copenhagen, is one of the most famous architecture studios in the world. Bridges at Mindness City follows a museum designed by the studio that crossed a river that divides the Kistefos Sculpture Park in Norway.
Besides Mindfulness City, the studio is working on several other large-scale masterplans including an octagon-shaped city in Saudi Arabia as part of NEOM and a solar-powered community center in Jordan. Engels also proposed a masterplan to redesign the Earth and stop climate change called Masterplanet.
Project credits:
client: Kingdom of Bhutan
Collaborators: Arup, sister
project team:
Responsible partners: Bjarke Ingels, Giulia Frittoli
project manager: Nana Guildholm Müller
Design leadership: Dice Gorica
a team: Anastasia Golub, Philip Radu, Giancarlo Albarello Herrera, Krisha Arunkumar, Marius Tromholt-Richter, Matthew Goodwill, Monica Duxet, Sophie Hogue, Xian Chen, Xu Lian
Perceptions: BreakVisual, Achain, Page
