The traditional model of growth is a zero sum game with discrete land use typologies, where growth in one area can only happen at the expense of another. Our primary motivation in developing this model systemic community is to provide a paradigmatic shift in accommodating growth: by harnessing and integrating systems that are cyclical in nature and time, the community will rejuvenate and heal the surrounding ecology with every cycle rather than eroding it over time.

Perspective of mixed use complex looking out towards Salton Sea

The approach is holistic, in that we consider interrelationships between all processes fundamental to sustaining life and preserving nature: water and energy cycles, agriculture and seasonality, production and the exchange economy, as well as social needs of a multi-generational community. Furthermore, our strategy is hinged on the notion of restoring scarred landscapes, making them givers of life, and enhancing their integration into the surrounding ecology and life.


Sustainable systems distribution map

The process of healing is emphasized by a symbiotic relationship between the community and the natural environment. The goal
is to create a community that has a 0 net impact on emission, waste, energy and water while reducing the Sea salinity level and maintaining the ecosystem it supports.


Residential Unit arrangement in mixed use tower

The project focuses on the illustration of the model community as case study of not only sustainable architecture but as example of a biomimetic approach to design inspired by natural eco-systems.
The project illustrates how our individual ecological footprint is much larger then we are aware off. The project designs a community not only composed of the housing and the public spaces around it, but that incorporates all the other elements necessary to feed, employ and create an exchange economy with the surrounding communities. This interconnectivity does not produce waste, but creates a chain of usage. This phenomenon although common in nature is still a novelty in architecture and exploring its potentials has been the team’s challenge.


Site plan

In working with constant feed back loops nature has learned how to adapt and survive. This community similarly learns and evolves based on the interaction between all entities. The farmlands, clean factories, algae farms, solar ponds, area productive eco-system that uses land, air, sun, and water as fundamental elements of life without exploiting but allowing the natural cycles to function in balance. With this process the scarred land of Salton Sea will have a chance to produce a new healthy life for all its inhabitants: flora, fauna and human kind and finally synchronize with nature’s rhythm of life.


Sustainable systems exploded axon