The car makes a sharp turn into the mass of greenery, greeting an image torn right off the pages of a fiction novel. Fairytale houses are woven within the trees, dappled sunlight tinting their roofs, and a dirt trail winds down to a dreamy fishing pond and a farm populated with llamas, donkeys, rabbits, and sheep. The air tastes crisp. The warm sun draws families out: parents chat with neighbors over ice tea as their children bounce along the community trampoline, and an aged couple saunters along the sidewalk, pulled onward by their two corgis. In a modern world where adults and children alike suffer from a lack of exposure to nature, Serenbe is a successful experiment of what a healthy and social community should be. With urban and rural
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The community started on a whim 25 years ago when the founder, Steve Nygren, purchased 60 acres of rural land, which soon developed into 900 acres in 2000. After noticing bulldozers adjacent to his farmland, Nygren feared that urban sprawl would consume this peaceful environment, and thus, with over 500 neighboring landowners, mandated that 80% of the 40,000-acre Chattahoochee Hill Country region must be preserved as wildlife green space. Serenbe is now a community inhabited by over 400 residents (Green). With mile long trails and organic gardens, the community of Serenbe incorporates biophilic designs as an attraction that combines urban and rural elements, instilling the theory that there is an instinctive bond between humans and other living …show more content…
Staying in a prolonged setting with no windows, artificial lighting, and a lack of fresh air creates sensory deprivation. Children also grow by interacting with nature, and, in turn, learning about the world and themselves. Thus, the absence of nature is also limiting a child’s development. After moving to Serenbe with her family, Olsen recalls a thoughtful story of how the community molded her 3-year-old son’s perception of the world. After purchasing fresh produce from the local organic market and placing them in the refrigerator, Olsen asked her toddler if he wanted blueberries. Her son, in response, put his sneakers on and ran out the front door towards the blueberry bushes that border the trails. A gentle smile graces her lips, “for him, he understood already that blueberries came from this bush instead of mom and dad’s fridge”
The community started on a whim 25 years ago when the founder, Steve Nygren, purchased 60 acres of rural land, which soon developed into 900 acres in 2000. After noticing bulldozers adjacent to his farmland, Nygren feared that urban sprawl would consume this peaceful environment, and thus, with over 500 neighboring landowners, mandated that 80% of the 40,000-acre Chattahoochee Hill Country region must be preserved as wildlife green space. Serenbe is now a community inhabited by over 400 residents (Green). With mile long trails and organic gardens, the community of Serenbe incorporates biophilic designs as an attraction that combines urban and rural elements, instilling the theory that there is an instinctive bond between humans and other living …show more content…
Staying in a prolonged setting with no windows, artificial lighting, and a lack of fresh air creates sensory deprivation. Children also grow by interacting with nature, and, in turn, learning about the world and themselves. Thus, the absence of nature is also limiting a child’s development. After moving to Serenbe with her family, Olsen recalls a thoughtful story of how the community molded her 3-year-old son’s perception of the world. After purchasing fresh produce from the local organic market and placing them in the refrigerator, Olsen asked her toddler if he wanted blueberries. Her son, in response, put his sneakers on and ran out the front door towards the blueberry bushes that border the trails. A gentle smile graces her lips, “for him, he understood already that blueberries came from this bush instead of mom and dad’s fridge”