Coronado

Veritas Village – Coronado stands on a Pacific-facing hillside about ten minutes’ drive above the town of Coronado, at between 250 and 350 metres. Coronado is a Pacific beach town west of Panama City and the country’s best-established hub for international residents. The village is close enough to use the town’s shops, clinics and beaches, and high enough that the plan marks ocean and valley views across the site.

The elevation gives the site a milder version of the coastal climate: warm enough to use a pool through the day, and cool enough in the evenings to cut back on air conditioning. The master plan divides the hillside into 87 numbered lots, ranging from around 500 to more than 5,000 square metres, threaded with hiking trails and set around a creek along one edge of the property. There is a main gate with a guard station and a second entrance lower down.

The welcome centre is designed to run entirely off grid on its own solar power and water, and serves as the working demonstration of how the rest of the village is meant to operate. Twelve house models are offered, from a studio of about 400 square feet to a family house of roughly 3,400, each named after a Panamanian bird, and residents can also build to their own design.

The shared programme is set out in unusual detail for a village of this size. Alongside the welcome centre and community pool the plan places a farmers’ market, a clinic, a conference palapa and an international school at the entrance; tennis, padel and volleyball courts and a gym; a tilapia pond with a beach; stables and a chicken coop; a woodworking shop and music studio; community orchards, gardens and a hydroponic growing and food-processing area; and, further down the slope, a restaurant with a viewing deck, an amphitheatre, a fire lounge, a disc golf course and a butterfly garden and bird sanctuary.