Nuvali, Ayala Land Inc.’s flagship project encompasses 1,840 hectares stretching from Sta. Rosa Laguna all the way to Calamba. It is the most ambitious project in Philippine real estate history which the Ayalas themselves dub as the next Makati Central Business District.
Not that they will leave the Makati CBD, but they admitted that with Nuvali, they can start with a bigger canvass (it’s eight times the size the Makati CBD), where they intend not repeat whatever mistakes they committed in their Makati development.
Given the sheer size of Nuvali and the fact that it will be composed of several residential, commercial and office components, it’s easy to see that Nuvali will become a virtual city in itself. And it is a city that will be built with sustainability as its focal point.
The best known definition of sustainability, sustainable living or sustainable development is the one by the Brundtland Commission or the World Commission on Environment and Development. It is defined as
forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Sustainable (or green, that word again : ) living, has been with us for a long time. Wikipedia offers a list of publications and events that chronicles the long history of sustainable living dating as far back 1854 when Henry David Thoreau published his book Walden.
But it is only recently that sustainability gained serious attention because we have begun to realize that the threats to ourselves and to our planet are real if we continue to ignore it. Earth is the only home we have and we have nowhere else to go if we do not take care of it.
On this premise, Nuvali was designed as a cutting-edge community that encourages residents and transients to live and work comfortably, simply and responsibly without putting too much stress on the environment and, therefore, giving future generations a chance to experience the same lifestyle.
As ambitious and complex as Nuvali’s Master plan is and the fact that the Ayala’s were lucky enough to start with a large blank canvass with it, are there lessons from Nuvali that our local governments can learn and apply? Can old dogs learn new tricks from a puppy like Nuvali?
My answer is yes if local governments would be honest enough to admit their own mistakes and modest enough to realize that there is a modern community on the rise which plans, or at least parts of them, are worth emulating. I’m not asking these cities to start from scratch; that’s ludicrous, but they can start with what they have and make the most of it.
Here’s a satellite image of Nuvali, and see how vast it is.
Thank you so much.
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