Regenerative cities, by design

Cities that give back more than they take.

Orchid City turns a real place into a net-positive city. Energy, water, food, and work are produced on site, biodiversity returns, and daily life stays within a short walk.

See how it works Explore the locations →
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How cities use the planet

Cities use most of the world's energy and emit most of its carbon. We design the ones that don't.

The next thirty years add two billion people to the world's cities. Built the usual way, that growth deepens the problem. Built as Orchid Cities, it repairs it.

80%

of the world's energy is used in cities, which emit over 70% of its carbon.

1 in 4

cities already faces a severe water shortage, and the count climbs every year.

+40%

more people will lack a decent, affordable home by 2030.

The film

See the vision in motion.

A method, not a masterplan

A method that designs a city for its place.

Give it a real place. It gives back a city that fits.

Most eco-cities are one showcase, designed once and copied everywhere. Orchid City is a system. It reads a place's climate, water, economy, and culture, then draws on decades of research and a network of 25+ partners to design a city for that place: one that pays for itself and gives more than it takes.

The same method suits a Dutch polder or a tropical delta, a town of 500 or a city of 100,000. Energy, water, food, waste, transport, work, learning, and housing are designed as one living system, not patched together one problem at a time.

A method that designs a city for its place. The Orchid City model, from productive land to a walkable core.
The Orchid City model, from productive land to a walkable core.
Human scale

One living system, designed around the people already there.

Built to human scale

Productive landscape, walkable density, and water woven through every district.

The three principles

Three principles behind every Orchid City.

01

Resilience

A city that absorbs shocks and keeps running. Car-free neighborhoods, local solar, wind, and storage, and landscapes that hold floodwater. When the climate, the economy, or a supply chain falters, an Orchid City keeps its people housed, fed, and connected.

Near zeromarginal cost of locally produced energy
02

Autonomy

Self-reliant in the essentials. A city of 5,000 makes more energy and water than it uses, and grows as much food and work as it needs. Self-reliance grows with size, from about 75% at 500 residents to over 95% at 15,000.

117%energy produced against demand, at 5,000 residents
03

Harmony

Room for people and the living world at once. In the Netherlands design, 80% of the land goes to farming and 12% to wild nature, biodiversity returns in full, hundreds of beehives work the fields, and every generation lives within walking distance of daily life.

100%+biodiversity restored against the baseline
The measure of one city

What a single Orchid City delivers.

Per Orchid City of 15,000 residents. Figures grow with size.

140%
Net-positive carbonIt captures 40% more carbon than it emits
8000+
Regenerative jobsCreated inside the city itself
1.1M
Trees plantedHabitat and biodiversity restored
25+
PartnersBehind the work, over 25 years
Designed for real places

Three blueprints, three continents.

Each is a complete design for a real region, drawn to its own climate, water, and culture. One method, shaped three ways, from reclaimed polder to river delta. These are ready to build.

The Woods The Woods
Netherlands · Reclaimed polder

The Woods

Rewilding woven through farming and higher learning. Greenhouses, agricultural research, and homes for every generation on former polder land, built for a changing climate and for people who could not otherwise afford to live well.

Research & learningClimate adaptationAffordability
The Valley The Valley
Brazil · Hills near Campinas

The Valley

A lakeside center held by terraced farms, river-forest neighborhoods, wetlands, orchards, and food forests. Built around safety, belonging, and the return of land and water to health.

Social inclusivityWater & agricultureNatural regeneration
The Delta The Delta
Vietnam · Edge of the Mekong Delta

The Delta

Homes on stilts and raised ground along a mangrove waterfront, with a floating market, rice terraces, fish ponds, and aquaculture. Built to live with the water, and to keep good work close to home.

Flood-proofingHigh-tech agricultureRural livelihoods
Behind the work

Built over 25 years, with 25+ partners.

Orchid City is the work of Except and a network across architecture, engineering, energy, finance, and government.

600+projects delivered
25+years of practice
6continents
B-Corpcertified since 2019

A network of 25+ partners, including

Except Integrated Sustainability UNStudio Biohm Royal HaskoningDHV DSA Cycas Capital Traject Draeger PDIE Neuromagic Amsterdam WOODstock Linden Earth ICED Asset+2 RVO De Groene Stad IPEhub VSSE Peerby ORCCA 477e31d106f585837032830789651a71 one download WICMI Japan Innovation Park Creatabitat Untitled
Life in an Orchid City
Food grown where people live
Food grown where people live
A circular food system, block by block
A circular food system, block by block
Forest and city, continuous
Forest and city, continuous
Designed for every generation
Designed for every generation
A young girl with a blue watering can stands among shelves of potted plants and lush foliage inside a wood-framed garden nursery. A useful reference for community greenhouse spaces and hands-on planting that connect residents, including children, to growing food and greenery.
Two children reach for an enormous iridescent soap bubble in a sunlit urban square framed by old apartment buildings and a large tree. A reference for how small, free public moments turn a plaza into shared social space.
An elevated view across the tightly packed rooftops of a Vietnamese coastal city, with motorbikes flowing along a tree-lined avenue and water visible at the horizon. A reference for the density and street life of an existing delta city as Orchid City plans for water-adjacent urban living.
A wooden farm stand displays baskets of colourful peppers, tomatoes, beets and turnips beside a chalkboard advertising certified organic produce and pasture-raised chicken. A reference for local food sales and short supply chains between growers and a community.
People sit at outdoor cafe tables along a sloping cobbled street of pastel buildings, with a forested hillside rising behind the town. A reference for hillside streets where ground-floor cafes and shade trees make a walkable terraced settlement.
A warmly lit old-town street, likely Hoi An, with yellow facades, hanging paper lanterns, and people gathered outside shops in the evening. Useful as a reference for human-scale, walkable public space and the texture of Vietnamese town life.
Tall staked tomato plants bearing red and green fruit grow in a soil bed inside a glass greenhouse, with a green watering can on the ground and a grassy field visible through the glass. A reference for small-scale food production and season-extending growing structures.
A street procession of drummers and dancers dressed in white moves past a house at night, several carrying samba-style drums. A reference for the cultural and ceremonial life that gives a community its identity.
A woman sprays water from a hose across rows of leafy greens at the edge of a forest. A reference for small-scale food production and the everyday work of irrigation in a rural Vietnamese landscape.
A flock of red-breasted geese flies low over flat green grassland under a pale sky, with more birds on the ground behind. A reference for the migratory waterfowl that overwinter on Dutch polder grasslands and the wetland habitat that supports them.
Two people walk down a cobbled alley whose walls are covered end to end with colorful graffiti and murals, including a street painting on the pavement. A reference for how public art animates pedestrian lanes between buildings.
Two women in embroidered ethnic-minority dress stand with a young child at an outdoor gathering, with other people behind them. A reference for community, traditional textiles, and the human fabric of northern Vietnamese highland life.
A canoe with a wooden paddle rests at a grassy bank beside pink flowering plants and reeds at the edge of calm water. A reference for quiet waterway recreation and the reedy shorelines typical of Dutch wetlands and polder canals.
An overhead view of an orchestra's string section, musicians in black with violins and sheet music on stands. A reference for indoor cultural venues and the performing-arts life of a community.

The world we build for.

Every Orchid City begins from a real place and the life already there.

Start a conversation

Find your way into Orchid City.

The vision→The Woods, Netherlands→The Valley, Brazil→The Delta, Vietnam→For developers and landowners→For investors→For municipalities and governments→Partners→

The research is done and the partners are in place. The proof is on the table. All that's left is a place to build the first one.