The vision for this new residential district was a unique approach to traditional suburban development: recreating the needs and priorities of the future community. The centralized community promotes pedestrian circulation from residential enclaves to adjacent open space amenities. Within this planning framework, an innovative approach to street and lotting was developed.  

Corozal, located in northern Belize, is on a former 960-acre sugar cane plantation. The community plan offers an ethical and responsible approach to new town development. Core principles guiding the master plan included engaging and supporting the Belizean culture by developing a deep understanding of the history of the region while exercising a sensitive approach to facilitate directed community organization. Community form evolved from the traditional Belizean village structure.

Anchoring the community is an active market and entertainment district featuring a local maker’s marketplace, fishing village, and university campus. Performance objectives for the community included incorporating emerging technologies to achieve a net zero community with on-site water purification and treatment system, solar and wind energy generation, and biodiversity though the preservation and enhancement of existing forest and marine ecosystems.

ARCHIPELAGO is an interruption to the status quo intended to demonstrate how, on a district scale, a community can be reimagined through an array of self-supporting, integrated, and interconnected Island Neighbourhoods suspended above the floodplain to promote a regenerative ecosystem on the lands below.  

The concept promotes radical new approaches to housing typologies while integrating communal uses such as schools, nature interpretive and education centres, and sports facilities within the community. ARCHIPELAGO interrupts obsolete paradigms while providing inspiration to reimagining and transforming urban centres into true bio-cities.

Part of an international design team, a comprehensive strategies land use plan defined urban form and scale and tenure of public realm elements associated with a new city centre district of 75 hectares in central China. A man-made lake with 2.8 kilometres of publicly accessible waterfront addressed stormwater capture and quality control while reinforcing a vital recreation and ecological context to the district. The core precincts of the new city centre include a financial district, marketplace, ceremonial/formal civic gardens, entertainment and retail district, arts, beach, and tourism, as well as naturally detailed parks and amenity zones.  

Collaborating with urban planners and the overall community, the organization for this new space featured a unique approach: establishing a community connecting parks and open areas. Through extensive consultation with collaborators, the hierarchy of open spaces, alignment, and connectivity of trails evolved to ensure a variety of experiences integrating the community.