The dominion of Bhutan is planning a “mindfulness city” that, if built, will cover some 2.5% of the country — an area larger than Singapore.
Plans show the 1,000-square-kilometer city will probably be built near the town of Gelephu, along Bhutan’s southern border with India.
“Gelephu Mindfulness City,” because it’s called within the project’s masterplan, will function an economic hub and gateway for tourists to the remaining of the country, in response to a press release published in late January.
Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck said in December that the country is “not trapped by legacy and might innovate swiftly to implement plans that other countries might hesitate to pursue,” in response to the press release.
Gelephu is a crucial border crossing for Indian travelers. Nonetheless, most other international visitors fly into Paro International Airport, near Bhutan’s largest city and capital, Thimphu, which is a few 26 square kilometers in size.
Like Saudi Arabia’s planned linear city, called The Line, Gelephu Mindfulness City rethinks how modern cities look, function and serve the needs of residents.
Gelephu’s masterplan
The masterplan for “Gelephu Mindfulness City” shows a low- to-mid-rise metropolis built around a series of inhabitable bridges.
The outside of Gelephu’s planned health-care center.
Source: Bjarke Ingels Group
Each bridge will “house” key features of the town: a recent international airport, a university, a health-care facility for Eastern and Western medicine, a hydroponic greenhouse, a cultural center, a spiritual center, a marketplace for local goods and a hydroelectric dam, in response to the plan.
The Sankosh Temple-Dam, with an elevated temple in the center.
Source: Bjarke Ingels Group
The Sankosh Temple-Dam could have staircases that result in an elevated temple, which Bjarke Ingels, founder and artistic director of the Bjarke Ingels Group, likened to “a 21st century Tiger’s Nest,” referencing Bhutan’s most famous landmark.
The planned city could have eleven “ribbonlike neighborhoods” that incorporate the world’s 35 rivers and streams. Neighborhoods will probably be designed like mandalas, with repeated patterns organized around a central public space, in response to Bjarke Ingels Group’s website.
“Gelephu Mindfulness City” shows a city designed among the many rivers and streams that flow through it.
Source: Bjarke Ingels Group
To guard against flooding, paddy fields will probably be built along the rivers, “forming urban terraces that cascade down from the hills to the valley,” it states. “These will further function as biodiversity corridors for local natural world, leaving the migratory routes of elephants and other wildlife undisturbed.”
A ‘wellbeing’ city
The town, which is able to operate in a special administrative region in southern Bhutan, will probably be based on Bhutan’s famed Gross National Happiness philosophy, in response to the press release.
“Mindfulness City is exclusive for … prioritising not only economic development but personal wellbeing for each resident,” it states.
Buildings will use local materials, resembling wood, stone and bamboo, in response to the town’s masterplan.
Construction of a recent international airport and a dry port have already began. Nonetheless, there isn’t a set completion date for the project as it can depend upon how “business developments progress,” media representatives told CNBC.
A rendering of the Vajrayana Bridge, which keeps animal corridors in place on the bottom level.
Source: Bjarke Ingels Group
“The Mindfulness City SAR is a long-term project which is able to proceed to grow and develop over years to come back,” in response to the MCC Media.