Wellness Community Strategy & Brand

A village for living well, together.

Heartfield Village is a 300 acre regenerative wellness community being co-created in the Byron Bay hinterland. Homes, food, health, learning and nature are planned as one living place, guided by sixteen Conscious Co-existence Covenants.

Co-creating community, nurturing nature.

  • Modelling
  • Financials
  • Placemaking
  • Marketing
  • Project management
The Heartfield gathering pavilion on its terracotta terrace, seen from above
One of several community gathering spaces

The land

The land comes first.

Heartfield Village is being co-created across 300 acres, in deep harmony with nature and with each other. We work with the contours, the water and the wildlife, and protect the essence of the place while we restore it.

For the last 20 years, active regeneration work has been carried out across all 300 acres of the Heartfield land. Thousands of native trees have been planted and invasive species have been removed, so the village begins with a landscape that is already healing.

The project has the appropriate permissions from the traditional custodians of this land.

The photographs on this page show the land as it is today: terraced earthworks, a lake and water gardens, edible pathways and a gathering pavilion. Everything that follows is planned around them, so that homes, food, health and learning grow out of the place rather than sit on top of it.

Photographs show the land today. Other images are concept imagery of what we are co-creating.

Heartfield lake, gardens and paths seen from above
Flower gardens, lake and mountain at Heartfield
The Heartfield wetlands from the air
The wetlands
A lone tree on the hill at Heartfield
The hill
Golden grass and mountain at Heartfield
The grasslands

The plan

Five places, one village.

Each place has its own pace and purpose. Together they let people live, grow food, heal, learn and gather without leaving the land that holds them. Images in this section are concept imagery.

01

The Village

The everyday heart of the place.

A walkable centre of homes, small studios and shoptop living, with shops, a cafe and social club for events, and places for the mind and body. It is where neighbours meet, where local makers trade and where daily life is easy.

  • Homes, studios and shoptop living
  • Cafe and social club
  • Mind and body studio
  • Healing room
  • Bakery and organic grocery
Concept image of the village street with cafe tables under eucalypts
Concept image of a timber-clad village home with a deck, garden and hill views
02

The Plains

Where the food is grown.

An agrihood of enduringly abundant homes alongside an organic farm, a nursery and an incubator for new growers. Affordable housing opportunities sit here too, so that growing food and being part of the community are open to more people.

  • Organic farm and agrihood
  • Nursery and incubator
  • Affordable housing opportunities
  • Edible pathways and trails
  • Picnic shelter and fire pit
  • Outdoor exercise circuit
Concept image of terraced farmland and homes on the plains
Concept image of a greenhouse and nursery
03

Hidden Valley

Quiet, private and close to the trees.

Homes set into the valley and designed to sit lightly on the land, with passive design, natural materials and biophilic detail. The place for people who want privacy, space and a deep connection to the landscape.

  • Passive design homes
  • Biophilic detail
  • Private garden sanctuaries
  • Solar energy
Concept image of homes and a path in the valley
Concept image of a glass and stone home with a timber deck and fire pit among the trees at dusk
04

Village Green

Where we gather, learn and play.

The open heart of the village. A Community Learning and Co-Creation Centre, also known as the Conscious Living Institute, sits beside an amphitheatre, a growers market and places to play, so ideas, food and celebration share the same ground.

  • Community Learning and Co-Creation Centre
  • Amphitheatre
  • Organic growers market
  • Tennis and pickleball
  • Natural playground
  • Nature trails
Concept image of the village green at sunset, with market tents and gathering buildings set among the hills and trees
Concept image of people gathered on the open lawn beside a community hall, seen from above at golden hour
05

The Cabins

A place to rest and renew.

Wellness retreat lodging tucked into the bush, for guests and for residents who want time apart. Quiet sitting sanctuaries, an edible forest and a labyrinth invite slow walking, and fire pits bring people together at the end of the day.

  • Retreat cabins
  • Labyrinth
  • Sitting sanctuaries
  • Edible forest
  • Outdoor event space
  • Fire pits
Concept image of two canvas-roofed retreat cabins with timber decks, lit from within at dusk and set among the trees above the valley
Concept image of a stone fire pit alight at dusk, with a canvas-roofed cabin and deck beyond the lawn

Inside the village

Rooms for movement, stillness and making.

Wellcare, creativity and learning have real rooms in the plan. These are concept images of the kinds of spaces we are co-creating.

Concept image of a movement room with forest views
Movement
A tea ceremony in progress, with tea poured into five handmade cups on a timber table beside cherry blossom
Stillness
Concept image of a healing and treatment room
Healing
Concept image of a timber apothecary filled with plants and amber bottles, with garden views through tall windows
Apothecary
Concept image of an art studio
Making
Concept image of a music studio looking onto a forest deck
Music

Resilience

A community that can stand on its own.

Heartfield is being designed with the capacity to be off the grid, with the option of an on-grid connection for redundancy.

The goal is a resilient community, one that can look after its own energy, food and water, manage its waste with care and be ready when disaster comes.

  • Energy security
  • Food security
  • Water security
  • Waste management
  • Disaster preparedness
Concept image of a solar powered home set in open grassland

How it holds together

Sixteen Conscious Co-existence Covenants.

Conscious Co-existence is a vision of a world where we co-create intentional communities in which people can live healthy, happy lives within the earth's resources. The Covenants are a straightforward framework to help achieve it, and they guide every decision at Heartfield. Here are the five themes they sit within.

  1. Active, social, meaningful lives, supported by integrated wellcare and by places that welcome people of every age and ability, and that recover well when things go wrong.

  2. Local identity and heritage, equitable local development, and lifelong learning, so the community grows from the people and the place that are already here.

  3. Protecting and restoring the land, using water with care, and growing healthy, local, regenerative food, in harmony with the essence of the place.

  4. Materials, movement, waste and energy designed to need less, reuse more and run on renewables.

  5. A place to share and develop ideas that redefine the way we live, with technology used to enhance community and environmental health.

01of five themes

The thinking behind it

Wellness has to be designed in.

The Global Wellness Institute describes wellness real estate as a fast-growing part of how people choose to live, and it warns against well-washing, where wellness is added to the marketing but not to the place.

$134bUS dollars of wellness real estate in 2017
6.4%annual growth since 2015
740+residential projects in the pipeline, across 34 countries

Source: Global Wellness Institute, Build Well to Live Well: Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate and Communities.

Heartfield lake, gardens and paths from above

Our role

The model behind the village.

Heartfield Village is our model, grounded in ROOTS. Stella Jackson leads the work that turns the vision into a place that can be planned, financed and delivered.

We are co-creating the project with Grant and a team of specialists, and we work alongside town planners, architects and builders, so that everyone who shapes the land and the homes shares one picture of the place from the start.

  • Modelling
  • Financials
  • Placemaking
  • Marketing
  • Project management

For landowners and developers

Craft a legacy that regenerates.

If you steward land, or develop it, and you want your legacy to be a place where people and nature both thrive, we would like to hear from you. Tell us about your land or your project, and we will explore what a regenerative wellness community could become there.

Evening light over the village green at Heartfield
People first, place by place.
Thank you. We have received your enquiry and will be in touch soon to begin the conversation.
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