An architect has unveiled plans for a new ‘Smart Forest City’ in Cancun that’s 100% self-sufficient for both food and energy.
Stefano Boeri Architetti, an architect based in Milan has designed the city, which could host 130,000 inhabitants as well as 7.5 million plants on a 557 hectares of land.
It’s designed to have the perfect balance between the amount of green areas such as public parks and private gardens and buildings, meaning it could absorb a whopping 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
The 7.5 million plants will include 260,000 trees, as well as a variety of shrubs and bushes.
One of the key features will be a Research Centre, which could host university departments, international organisations and companies working on sustainability.
Meanwhile, cars will be banished to the edges of the city, in favour of an internal electric transportation system.
Other key features include a ring of solar panels and agricultural fields, irrigated by a water channel connected with an underwater maritime pipe.
The architect explained: “A perimeter ring of photovoltaic panels and a water channel connected to an underground plant at the sea, will allow the city to be sustainably fed and to develop a circular economy with regards to water use, a key element of the project, collection at the entrance of the city with a large dock and a desalination tower, and distributed by a system of canals, also navigable, which will serve the entire settlement and will also irrigate the outer belt of agricultural fields.”
Sadly, it remains unclear if the city could become a reality, or how much it would take to set up.
