Villa Verde is on a site that is part of the Habitat program sponsored the City Government to provide social housing and market-rate housing executed by private developers in combination with city subsidies. The design team was selected by FIABCI to make a design that illustrates in the city of Quito the goals of the UNECE REM Global Policy Framework for Sustainable Real Estate Markets.

The project was designed to support a just and progressive life for a mix of people emerging from the informal economies and established citizens with liberal values. The site plan allows for a variety of social settings – ranging from gated communities to open, public street related residential/commercial development. The plan layout allows for many different markets and organizational outcomes – which are to be determined by the combined organizations of tenants and sponsors as they commit themselves to the community.

It is designed to fit the local city fabric. Its streets are potentially a continuation of the city grid, its park and boulevard are an extension of adjacent ones, and its facilities (school, café, meeting rooms, commercial development) are open to the surrounding neighborhood. Its layout centers on a public park and community services that facilitate community life, support the vocational (and social) training of residents in construction, management, and other skills. The central lobby, meeting rooms, and café allow for control of vehicular and pedestrian access to the site of many varied arrangements, make visible and open the management of the property, and provide a focus for community life.

The residential blocks, with their more closed neighborhood spaces and non-monumental architecture, allow for the housing to be developed on differing time scales and budgets, permit a variety of street related commercial development and promote the expression of sub-communities and the further development of the individual units as their occupants’ lives grow.

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