Gelephu Mindfulness City icon | Bjarke Ingels Group

Gelephu Mindfulness City

Gelephu, Bhutan

Client

The Kingdom of Bhutan

Typology

Infrastructure

Status

In Design

Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — Gelephu's existing site conditions.

Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — 35 rivers run across the site, bringing water from the mountains in the north down to the south.

Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — To protect existing and future development against flooding in the monsoon season, paddy fields are established along the site’s rivers.

Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — A gradual change in density of the developments is created, from small buildings dispersed in the landscape in the north to larger footprints within an urban environment in the south.

Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — Mobility connections for public and vehicular transport as well as pedestrians run across Mindfulness City and connect all neighborhoods.

Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

 — A series of inhabitable bridges link urban and natural environments.

01/06
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
“The Gelephu Masterplan gives form to His Majesty’s vision to create a city that becomes a cradle for growth and innovation while remaining founded on Bhutanese nature and culture. We imagine the Mindfulness City as a place that could be nowhere else. Where nature is enhanced, agriculture is integrated, and tradition is living and breathing, not only preserved but also evolved. Shaped by waterways, Gelephu becomes a land of bridges, connecting nature and people, past and future, local and global. Like the traditional Dzongs, these inhabitable bridges turn into cultural landmarks, doubling as transportation infrastructure combined with civic facilities. Among these, the Sankosh Temple-Dam embeds the city’s fundamental values into a cascading landscape of steps and landings, that like a 21st century Tigers Nest will be a manmade monument to the divine possibility of a sustainable human presence on earth. Turning engineering into art and turning the forces of nature into power."
Bjarke Ingels - Founder and Creative Director, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group 
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
“Inspired by the Bhutanese culture of respect and compassion for others and nature, the Mindfulness City is designed to enhance ecological systems, through an urban development that connects flora and fauna, as well as people and ideas. It becomes a testament of humanity's inseparable bond with nature, and a global example of how to build a sustainable human presence on Earth.”
Giulia Frittoli - Partner in Charge, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group    
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group
Gelephu Mindfulness City gallery image | Bjarke Ingels Group

Partner in Charge

Bjarke Ingels

Frederik Lyng

Giulia Frittoli

Ole Elkjær-Larsen

Project Manager

Clara Mendiguren

Nanna Gyldholm

Per Bo Madsen

Stefan Victor Delvoye

Design Lead

Ahmad Altahhan

Dace Gurecka

Project Team

Aanchal Ashok Tejwani

Adrianna Szmidt

Alessandro Sciolari

Anastasiia Golub

Atibadi Brugnano

Camille Castillo

Claudia Jaegerman

Elisabeth von Korff

Filip Radu

Filippo Cartapani

Floris Dreesmann

Gaspard Del Marmol

Giancarlo Albarello Herrera

Giuseppe Mercuri

Graham Forrest Jordan

Hancong Ding

Jakob Henke

Jian Long

Job Schobre

Kai Siyu Tian

Kateřina Krchňáková

Krisha Arunkumar

Laura Watte

Lucia Hurtado Ayala

Mantas Povilaika

Margaux Caboche

Marius Tromholt-Richter

Matthew Goodwill

Matthew Oravec

Mengran Zhang

Mónica Galiana Rodriguez

Monika Dauksaite

Neele Maree Ohlrogge

Parastoo Salehi Farhadpour

Riccardo Abagnale

Sophie Andrews

Sophie Høg

Stine Daude

Tara Ghesmatiaghkand

Teresa Malchiodi Albedi

Xian Chen

Xinyu Zhao

Xu Lian

BIG Engineering

Andrea Hektor

Anna Sofie Kirstine Krøyer Julius

Cristina Minguela

Fernando Villalobos Lopez

Jens Max Jensen

Konstantinos Koutsoupakis

Miles Treacy

Thomas Lejeune

BIG Sustainability

Chiara Gargiulo

Ivan Ares Igrexas

Johannes Alexander Hackl

Praveen Lalitha Kishorekumar

Victor-Antoine Delorme

Will Chuanrui Yu

Awards

Holcim Foundation Award for Sustainable Construction, 2025

Collaborators

MQDC

NACO

Cistri

Arup

CDR

ERM