One Planet Hamlet
Cardiff, Wales
Permaculture Design, One Planet Development, Sustainible Design, Flexible Housing
MWD is excited to be part of a project that encapsulates the practice's core principles. The values of the project are based around the One Planet Development legislation, where the project looks to re-establish modern and sustainable modes of living with an emphasis on social wellbeing through permaculture design. The priorities for the scheme were to integrate a variety of flexible housing types to suit the ever-changing modern family unit throughout a lifetime. Thresholds are emphasised by creating opportunities for social interaction instead of hard boundaries, for example, a low wall that turns into a bench or a raised planter for growing tomatoes. A central street serves as a backbone to clusters of houses overlooking shared courtyards, that provide opportunity to interact and support fellow residents. Tactfully locating areas of activity with routes throughout the site creates civic centres and encourages the community's mutual participation while inviting the wider city to partake in the land-based economy. In a world that is becoming increasingly disconnected, MWD is striving to reconnect people, plants and wildlife within an intrinsically linked system that can be mutually beneficial for all. This promotes social wellbeing and longevity and in turn reduces wasteful and inefficient processes.