Wednesday, February 24, 2010

High Density Resort?

We recently won the bid for a 144 ha time share resort planning in Vietnam. After reviewing the brief, we discovered to our surprise, that the client was targeting a rather (sub)urban density of 0.6, while maintaining the resort character (which usually has a density 2-3 times less than the proposed). So how do you plan a high density luxury resort, without creating a great pile of houses? Always confronted with the question of maximizing the plot, we have accepted the challenge for the urban areas, but the image of luxury holiday and density did not come together yet. The great challenge in the beginning turned out to be a great potential for an exciting investigation in urban planning. As we started our research, we found an increase willingness to buy a house in a cul-de-sac (not the best word for the kind of quality it creates: Anybody who has a better word is welcome to contribute). People are paying a premium of 30% due to the exclusivity and privacy of the lot location.


Researching on the distribution of housing, we found that the planning parameters drastically favor the cul-de sac planning pattern, compared to a standard row/grid planning, with an increase of green surface and a decrease of road surface. It seems to be a win-win situation for both developer as well as buyer, as the buyer maintains a maximum of exclusivity, while the developer will have less construction cost.


As we are now in the process of finalizing the concept stage, please see below our first layout studies, creating a master plan, which we in such way would have not suspected.


Team: Louise Low, Ulrich Kirchhoff, Claudia Wigger, Arthur Bel, Hugo Ma, Tim Mao

No comments:

Post a Comment