News

Computer games and organic cooking inspire self-sufficient village plan in Sweden

Swedish firm White Arkitekter is working with Silicon Valley’s ReGen Villages to create a fully circular, self-sufficient village in Sweden.

ReGen says its "village operating system" is able to control multiple smart home amenities from a central hub, and all neighbourhood systems can be run digitally. The OS include vertical farming and aquaponics, rainwater collectors, solar panels and biogas extraction from local waste.

The system will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimise farming, energy use and water flows, with a local housing cooperative in charge of making it work.

ReGen Villages was founded by Californian entrepreneur James Ehrlich, who drew inspiration from his previous careers in video game design and organic food journalism, according to a New York Times interview in 2019.

A 250,000 sq m ReGen village will contain up to 300 energy positive homes, taking up 25% of the total area.

The rest will be dedicated to farming and food production, energy production and water management.

Ulla Bergström, White Arkitekter’s managing director, said: "Self-sufficiency and circularity make our cities and communities less vulnerable by lessening the load on central infrastructure. They are becoming key aspects of sustainable urban development and we are thrilled to be able to soon show what this can look like in practice."

White Arkitekter says work on a pilot project for the development will begin this year.

Images courtesy of White Arkitekter/ReGen Villages

Story for GCR? Get in touch via email: [email protected]

Latest articles in News