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Biophilic Living at Picton Yard Swansea is a radical new approach to living and working in the city, providing affordable new homes and workspaces alongside a community urban farm in the heart of Swansea.

Biophilia is our affinity, as human beings, to the natural world – a love of living things.

The Biophilic Living project incorporates this into the buildings design and development, allowing the community to reconnect with nature, in an urban environment.
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Community

Creating collaborative opportunities and social spaces to tackle social exclusion and loneliness.

Innovation

Developing responses to the climate emergency with low energy, low carbon innovations.

Well-Being

Reconnecting with nature and community to enhance well-being, mental and physical health.

A first for the UK, this pioneering project has been awarded funding through the Welsh Government Innovative Housing Programme, as it will trial a new, scalable model that is set to transform the way we conceive of inner city housing in Wales.

“There is an urgent need for housing and mixed-use developments that are sustainable in terms of their environmental impact and economic viability, as a response to the climate emergency and to ensure greater resilience and well-being for urban communities.  This project will prove what’s possible, showcase new technologies being developed locally, and blaze a trail for others to follow across Swansea city centre and beyond,” says Carwyn Davies, director of Hacer Developments.

The project is a mixed use development that includes affordable and shared ownership housing, as well as retail and commercial space.

The vision for Biophilic Living Swansea is to enable reconnection with nature in the urban environment, and the creation of a cohesive community to tackle issues of social exclusion and loneliness in an innovative way.  The project will allow residents to help run an urban farm as a social enterprise, with home grown produce consumed and sold locally. Biophilic Living is founded on research that reconnecting with nature is essential to our well-being, and that there are positive community and health outcomes from living more closely with the natural world.

This project by Hacer Developments has been designed by Powell Dobson Architects in Swansea.  The concept is the result of extensive collaborative work among a range of local organisations, including Swansea University, the Active Building Centre, Public Health Wales, Swansea Community Farm and Sero Homes Ltd.