“breathe – The new urban village project… is an international competition to design and build a new place for living in the Central City.”
Viva and Jasmax join forces for the “breathe” Urban Village Design competition
Viva is proud to be collaborating with Jasmax to develop our entry in the competition. Together, our unique strengths make for a powerful combination. Viva represents the collective voice and participatory leadership of the people of Christchurch. Jasmax brings its cutting edge design experience, as well as the sustainable values of the Living Building Challenge, “the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard.”
Designers and developers from all around the world have been invited to submit entries for a sustainable and commercially viable, medium density urban village for Christchurch, to inspire fresh creativity in the city’s rebuild following the devastating February 2010 earthquake.
The site is located on the edge of the planned green belt and has easy access to green spaces, the new performing arts precinct, entertainment, retail and transport. As such it will be a perfect showcase for what is possible for modern, 21st century living – and therefore perfectly suited to the unique strengths of the Viva-Jasmax partnership.
Stage One of the competition requires designers to pair up with a developer and to offer a design-led submission demonstrating how their entry responds to the brief. In Stage Two, the three leading designs selected by the judges and will work with the organisers to take their concept to the design stage. The winning entry will be decided based on the quality of the fully developed design, as well as the financial offer and terms of the development agreement for the site.
The competition site is located just north of Latimer Square bordered by Armagh St to the north, Madras St to the west and Gloucester St to the south as indicated approximately in the map below. 
The official site plan PDF is available here.