WORLD'S SMARTEST NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Dutch design practice envisioned the project in Helmond’s Brandevoort District, the Netherlands. The project explores social cohesion and safety, health, data, new transport technologies and independent energy systems. The Brainport Smart District (BSD) is designed to be a living lab that embraces experimentation and learns by doing.

BSD will develop 1500 new homes and 12 hectares of business premises. The development centres on the latest technologies and knowledge in order to achieve a sustainable, circular and socially cohesive neighbourhood around joint energy generation, food production, water management, digital data management and revolutionary transport systems.

The mixed residential neighbourhood will be organised around a central park and surrounded by business spaces and natural reserves. The landscape is used as a productive environment for food, energy, water, waste processing and biodiversity.

UNStudio’s urban plan is made with a flexible framework for incremental density. The site is divided into a series of strips (from north to south) that demarcate the district into ten parts, offering a diversity of urban and landscape densities and use. As an on-demand district, both urban development areas and nature areas are considered productive spaces, where a mix of living, working and leisure is facilitated.

Residents will be encouraged to adopt communal resource schemes such as shared energy generation and land cultivation. In turn, BSD’s technology universe is introduced as a framework for sharing data and information in order to enrich the efficiency of the landscapes, buildings and public spaces.

Via ArchDaily | Images © UNStudio