


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

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

— Gelephu's existing site conditions.

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

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

— 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.


“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










“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






Bjarke Ingels
Frederik Lyng
Giulia Frittoli
Ole Elkjær-Larsen
Nanna Gyldholm Møller
Per Bo Madsen
Stefan Victor Delvoye
Clara Mendiguren
Dace Gurecka
Ahmad Tahhan
Jakob Henke
Marius Tromholt-Richter
Filip Radu
Graham Forrest Jordan
Laura Wätte
Mantas Povilaika
Matthew Oravec
Monika Dauksaite
Filippo Cartapani
Alessandro Sciolari
Anastasiia Golub
Xu Lian
Job Schobre
Sophie Høg
Floris Dreesmann
Atibadi Brugnano
Mónica Galiana Rodriquez
Xian Chen
Giancarlo Albarello Herrera
Krisha Arunkumar
Camille Castillo
Stine Daude
Adrianna Szmidt
Xinyu Zhao
Kai Siyu Tian
Matthew Goodwill
Elisabeth von Korff
Neele Maree Ohlrogge
Sophie Andrews
Tara Ghesmatiaghkand
Lucia Ayala
Aanchal Ashok Tejwani
Hancong Ding
Claudia Jaegerman
Teresa Malchiodi Albedi
Parastoo Salehi Farhadpour
Riccardo Abagnale
Mengran Zhang
Gaspard Del Marmol
Giuseppe Mercuri
Jian Long
Margaux Caboche
Kateřina Krchňáková
Andrea Hektor
Miles Treacy
Cristina Minguela
Konstantinos Koutsoupakis
Thomas Lejeune
Jens Max Jensen
Fernando Villalobos Lopez
Anna Sofie Kirstine Krøyer Julius
Johannes Alexander Hackl
Will Chuanrui Yu
Iván Ares Igrexas
Praveen Lalitha Kishorekumar
Victor-Antoine Delorme
Chiara Gargiulo
Holcim Foundation Award for Sustainable Construction, 2025
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