Living Community Challenge
Integrated Communities
The Living Community Challenge is a framework for master planning, design, and construction. It is a tool to create a symbiotic relationship between people and all aspects of the built environment.
The program is a call to action to governments, campuses, planners, developers and neighborhood groups to create communities that are as connected and beautiful as a forest.
NOTE: While the program is no longer taking registrations, we are providing these as reference materials that can provide inspiration and guidance to people interested in the community approach.
Create healthy communities
Living Communities are:
- Nurturing and generous places that promote healthy lifestyles for everyone.
- Net positive with respect to water and energy. Living Communities generate their own energy and capture and treat all the water they need.
- Create a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.
Featured Case Studies
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SACRAMENTO VALLEY STATION
Sacramento, CA, USA
The Living Community at Sacramento Valley Station (SVS) and the associated Area Plan poses a unique opportunity to grow a regional transportation hub in the midst of a large developing urban center on a former Brownfield site. The project centers around goals of revitalizing a downtown liability to make a positive regional asset, reducing carbon…
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SONG SAA RESERVE
Siem Reap Province, Cambodia
Cambodia’s first Living Community Challenge project, the Song Saa Reserve is a mixed-use development featuring a combination of resort, hospitality, residential, art and culture, solar farm, and environmental and education projects, covering 233 hectares of former farmland in the Banteay Srei district, Siem Reap province, Cambodia. In design and operation the Song Saa Reserve will…
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THE MARIE SELBY BOTANICAL GARDENS
Sarasota, FL, USA
Positioned on the shores of Sarasota Bay between the urban core of the city and an adjacent residential neighborhood, sits Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, the world’s only botanical research garden specializing in epiphytes, or air plants, such as orchids and bromeliads. Since its inception, Selby Gardens has become a leading botanical garden in the United…
Petals
Imagine communities that function like a forest ecosystem. The Living Community Challenge is organized into seven performance areas.
Place
Restoring a healthy coexistence with nature.
Water
Creating water independent sites, buildings and communities.
Energy
Relying only on current solar income.
Health + Happiness
Maximizing physical and psychological health and well being.
Materials
Endorsing products and processes that are safe for all species through time.
Equity
Supporting a Just, equitable World.
Beauty
Celebrating plans that purpose transformative change.
Learn About The Challenge
Let’s create communities with resilient infrastructure that benefits all people. View the Living Community Challenge standard to learn about the philosophy behind the framework.