REGENERATIVE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Showcase of Work

Sanadora means healing, our focus is the relationship between humans and nature. Building community is a transformational process, our unique ethos of deep design powerfully integrates people, structures, and land into a holistic living system. Take a look at some of our completed and ongoing projects.

DIAMANTE LUZ

Ongoing Masterplanning

A regenerative community and cultural center demonstrating world class permaculture principles and catalyzing a global network with resilient local roots is developing in Costa Rica. With an abundance of expertise in natural building, syntrophic farming, and permaculture principles, the community was able to embrace and achieve a very large mission. We delivered a week-long Deep Design immersive experience for thirteen core members and land stewards of the community. The experience consisted of three different phases broken up into three-hour workshops. 

• Meditation and ceremony for community coherence, creativity, and clarity

• Community catharsis process to increase coherence and clear energetic blocks within the group

• Co-created community trust rituals to support ongoing development activities

• Events with neighboring stakeholders to support integration with the local context and enhance resiliency through participation

• Land listening activation to enhance the community's ability to hear the voice of the Earth and the spirits of the site. Click here to view a video of the process.
  
  

These holistic services helped the community develop a clear vision and refined definition of regenerative development so they could work together more effectively. The community received a design for visible and invisible structures for social and physical infrastructure to help them achieve their common aim and goals. Now, we are continuing to support their communal work.

LONGEVITY COSTA RICA

Ongoing Masterplanning

A micro community and healing center being developed to demonstrate the most effective technologies and practices in permaculture, sustainability, and regenerative living. A guiding principle for the project is that the development benefit the owners, animals, and community as much as possible. Our task is to create a design which gives the sense of being unplugged from the world while belonging to a tribe which spans the globe. Respecting the local culture and ecology is a priority, along with a commitment to excellence. We continue to facilitate a healthy relationship between the local community and a holistic design team.

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• Overseeing holistic permaculture planning

• Listening to the land and local surrounding community

• Identifying priority sites for development

• Clarifying housing concept to meet client needs and desires

• Designing single and multi-family homes, gardening, recreation, and common areas

HOLOS GLOBAL

Completed Masterplan and Design

This the 200 hectare community in Costa Rica needed a cohesive master plan with individual lots for homesteads and community amenities. Understanding the land as a stakeholder in the development process and working closely with the client, we created a master plan which integrates slopes, views, waterways, trails, and trees into the  early stages of creating a world-class permaculture community dedicated to healing and holistic living. With this information we designed a temporary retreat center to host visitors on the property as a prototype for the new community. The design features sacred architecture built from natural materials in reciprocity with the land, and intentional spaces built for people to connect with themselves, each other, and nature.

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• Mapped the property and developed a clear site plan to guide development including roads, rivers, topography, and property lines using aerial imagery and data obtained from drones

• Planned the layout of 80+ lots for individual homesteads and community amenities including permaculture food production, community wellness center, and healing retreat center

• Designed a pop-up glamping retreat center to host groups for yoga, dance, and healing events using temporary building techniques to create a yoga shala, lounge, kitchen, showers and composting toilets with glamping tents overlooking a forested valley with waterfall views

REGEN TULUM

Completed Workshops and Facilitation

A variety of sustainability projects were competing for resources to improve the social and environmental health of the city of Tulum, Mexico. A group of leaders asked for our help to organize different existing networks and initiatives to catalyze a more regenerative process and greater positive impact. We organized meetings, workshops, and strategies to help people and organizations come together in service to Tulum and the regeneration of its systems. Using new technologies (e.g. Web 3.0, interactive maps, tokenomics) we were able to showcase solutions, link local leaders, and promote regenerative development in the face of unsustainable urban development trends. The outcome is an ongoing effort to protect, restore, and improve natural habitats in the region which is home to the most extensive underground river system in the world, and the world's second largest coral reef system.

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We catalyzed a movement by helping to uncover shared goals, build coalitions, strengthen alignment, and reveal courses of action in an unorganized and scattered network of people around the world. Our in-person and virtual workshops supported the self-organization of a decentralized network of local and international activists which has grown to include more than 300 members in its first year. Long-time leaders of the sustainability movement have become engaged and linked through the strategy we designed, and commitment has grown among volunteers to sustain the growing movement in the long-term. The network is growing a reputation for excellence in environmental and social justice among international organizations and local agencies, with many emerging opportunities for financial support and funds to support the initiatives developed in the initial meetings.

JULIA AND DAVID WHITE ARTIST COLONY

Completed Design/Build

This community in Costa Rica needed a shared space to connect and establish common ground, so an off-grid structure was created as a place to meditate, create, and commune. The common space is used to showcase visiting and local artists and also serves as a refuge for the creative seeking inspiration or refuge in their process. The building showcases the lush, verdant nature, connecting individuals to the unique landscape, inviting exploration, evoking a sense of being held, and awakening the senses. Custom-made stained glass from local women artists paired with feminine organic benches, a round roof, and curving walls stimulate deep feelings and help one transcend the mundane world to access a sense of the mystical and divine. Natural materials were sourced from the surrounding area including bamboo, wooden beams, and posts. Importantly, our services also included asking permission from the land and local indigenous tribe to receive their blessing for the project, ceremony was a key part of the construction process. We also worked with engineers and the municipality, supervising the building site and managing contractor teams.

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"I commissioned Veronica to design and build a meditation space within an artists colony. Her approach was both organic and spiritual, beginning with her own meditation on the nature of the landscape and what it was asking for. The result was a building that was both open and embracing at the same time.  A provocative and serene space that has meshed into the hillside with delightful respect for its environment. She was professional, passionate, and responsive, I wholeheartedly recommend working with her."  -- Cathal Brown

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SEAS THE DAY

Completed Masterplan, Design/Build, and Coaching

This client envisioned a permaculture demonstration center and hub for sustainable living with a focus on health and healing through art and community on ten hectares in Costa Rica. The client requested support in dividing the site into commercial, communal, and residential segments, in addition to developing a range of both private and public spaces. The definition of circulation routes, housing sites, and building designs were part of this phase of the process. We also developed some initial infrastructure to support seasonal occupation of the land -- a block of composting toilets and showers was built using local timber and ecological construction. Inner architectures for regenerative leadership were also addressed and the client was given tools to embody the holistic vision of the project including mindfulness and somatic healing methods.

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• Create a master plan which would serve as a living document to guide fundraising and preliminary site works

• Study feasibility, budget, and assess needs to grasp a realistic scope

• Define, refine, and hone the fundamentals of the overall vision

INTEGRAL CLIMATE PARK AT UPEACE

Completed Regional Masterplan and Facilitation

The University for Peace, a United Nations' mandated institution with approximately 150 post-graduate students from Costa Rica and worldwide is home to The Earth Charter Institute. We partnered with Integral Climate Change Solutions to create a sustainability demonstration center which would catalyze integral development in the region. A major focus for the project was the protection of the last primary dry forest in the Central Valley, which does not have an official management plan and is threatened by local development trends. We worked on the ground in workshops and meetings to identify the key objectives of the project and create alignment with other stakeholders at the local, national, and international levels.

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• Guided experts through the process of defining a regional sustainability plan which prioritized the protection of the area's natural resources, leveraging eco-tourism and education programs.

• Helped design an integral regional development strategy which proposed key tactics for the development of regional resources and ongoing initiatives in the area including native planting, river restoration, and organic gardening.

• Facilitated a series of discussions with the local indigenous and secular communities to conduct needs assessments and map the region.

BIOPHILLY

Completed Geodesign and Facilitation

This community needed to organize and position itself as a leader in the biophilic cities movement. BioPhilly's activism was focusing on urban bird habitat. Their goals were to raise awareness and encourage community groups to get involved, coordinate ongoing initiatives, and increase communication between public agencies and private groups working on similar solutions, strengthening effectiveness through coalition-building. We created two applications to help organize the grassroots movement.

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• Storymap supporting the organization's educational workshops combining interactive maps and media explaining the global nature of the problem and revealing the urgent need to act

• Mapping application citizens could add their projects to showing examples of initiatives improving bird habitat in the city with information about the solutions being utilized. This app organized and displayed geospatial data including manmade and natural systems such as buildings and birds in an interactive and user-friendly web-based app.  Click here to view.

LAB FOR URBAN AND SOCIAL INNOVATION

Completed Geodesign

The Lab for Urban and Social Innovation at Jefferson University is a project of the College of Architecture and the Built Environment which has a long and rich history of delivering student projects to the community of Philadelphia with real impact and tangible benefit. The goal for this project was to create a story map of the projects, categorized by type, featuring images and descriptions of the work to engage local communities and collaborators in support of the Lab's ongoing mission.

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• Developed an interactive web-based app featuring tabs for the different categories of work done by the Lab, each with a map where points are georeferenced according to the location of the project, and pop-ups display photos and a description.

• Trained staff to maintain and update the storymap so it could be a living library of their projects and serve as a compendium of the organization's success and substantial history of positive impact in the city. Click here to view.