Biophilic Living
We humans have always been intimately dependent on or connected with landscape and animal habitats. With industrialization and technological developments, human and nature have become more separated than ever. However, we understand nature and landscape are essential assets for suburban life. Therefore, our main objective is to stitch the disconnected relationships between human-made artifacts and natural forces in the Westwood area. In understanding the overarching relationships with nature-as reserve, as resource and as recreation, this project aims to blur the boundaries between nature and humans by incorporating a diverse and dynamic set of activities into an extensive ecological system to introduce a new suburban lifestyle: ‘biophilic living’. This is achieved firstly by extending the green corridors into our site and connecting the patches of green and water into a larger ecological system enhancing the continuity of biodiversity. Secondly, through clustering around the existing structures, we create density along the main road with a diverse set of mixed-use programs that are productive ecologically and economically. In each of the clusters, nature seeps into people’s daily life from forests to wild meadow fields on mounds and from productive farmlands to peaceful grazing fields. These clusters are linked through a scenic path and are also anchored by various public programs.
Transit Hub:
The transit hub opens to a park plaza with mounds and ponds that becomes a cultural and social hub with a mixed-use station with green terraces, and bridges to an island of office/work space buildings.
Community Gardens Resi:
Existing residential plots are densified with new residential buildings and transformed into communities by integrating nature with gardens and at the same time they take advantage of water and streams as a scenic and performative element and promoting a sustainable, healthy, and productive lifestyle.
Mixed-use Resi and Hillside Resi:
By densifying the existing street with new proposed mixed-use buildings, the pedestrian strip with local shops and markets not only create a sense of intimacy but also gives visitors a sense of belonging. The pastoral context extends into the heart of the site with grazing fields and barns across this strip.
Farms and Research Labs
Farmlands are strategically placed to benefit from the wetlands as a resource while the existing industrial buildings on site are retrofitted into production and research facilities. They are linked with additional research and lab offices across the street that are anchored by a gym and playfields.
