The New Neighborhood

ReGen Village, outside of Amsterdam, is designed to be fully self-sufficient, growing its own food, making its own energy, and handling its own waste in a closed loop. 

Your dining room might be next to an indoor vegetable garden. Outside, a seasonal garden. Almost everything they’ll eat is grown in high-tech vertical farms. 

A combination of aeroponics, aquaponics, permaculture, food forests, and high-yield organic farming will grow much more food than a traditional farm, with fewer resources.  

James Ehrlich, is the CEO of ReGen Villages, a California-based developer, will manage the community. He works as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford University and as a senior technologist there, was inspired by a 2013 UN report that argued for the creation of self-sufficient communities. The design was in partnership with Effekt, a Danish architecture firm. He tells Fast Company: "We anticipate literally tons of abundant organic food every year — from vegetables, fruit, nuts, legumes, fish, eggs, chicken, small animal dairy and protein”  

ReGen will also produce its own energy, using a mixture of geothermal, solar, solar thermal, wind, and biomass. A biogas plant will turn any non-compostable household waste into power and water. A water storage system will collect rainwater and graywater and redistribute it to seasonal gardens and the aquaponic system. 

Fast Company reports that the first 100-home village is on the outskirts of Almere, a town 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam. ReGen has more projects planned in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Germany, and has plans to expand globally.