Mexico's new smart forest city
We all know that tourism does not always coexist adequately with sustainability or the environment and for example, there are thousands of places around the world.
Tourists and inveterate travelers are increasingly aware of this problem and are demanding changes in the tourism concept to minimize its impact. And this is where architects, engineers, urban planners and designers are beginning to see new business opportunities, new projects, which, in addition, can provide a "balance" between mass tourism and nature.
Mexico is one of the most visited Latin American countries. A paradise for tourists, and the icing on the cake, is the area of Cancun, where millions of tourists pass each year. Nature, Sun and beaches such as Delfines, Caracol, etc., or the route of the Cenotes push proposals for activities in Cancun for all tastes and moods where the tourist feels clothed and leisure is multiple, but leaving an important ecological impact .
Aware of the problem, the architecture studio Stefano Boeri Architetti has proposed a rather interesting project, the Smart forest city. The first forestry and smart city in Mexico that would be integrated into the Cancun area.
The goal of the Smart Forest City is to integrate innovation with environmental quality balancing green spaces with buildings creating a self-sufficient city (See the Smart City concept here)
The city is conceived as a fully circular economy, self-sufficient in food and energy. Surrounded by a ring of solar panels and agricultural fields that will be watered by the city's own sewage.
The city is conceived as a fully circular economy, self-sufficient in food and energy
The new city will be able to accommodate, on an area of 557 ha, 130,000 inhabitants, returning to nature a large area in which a commercial area would have been built.
400 hectares of green spaces with 7,500,000 plants (of 400 different species carefully chosen by Laura Gatti, botanist and landscaper) of which 260,000 will be trees.
With a proportion of 2.3 trees per inhabitant, and the rest composed of shrubs and bushes, the function of the Smart Forest City is "Absorb 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide with 5,800 tons of CO2 stored per year". In addition to public parks, gardens, roofs and green facades that will help create a balance with the built footprint.
Another of the highlights of the project is urban mobility. We have to think that, between tourists and the inhabitants of the Cancun area, there is a high traffic of vehicles in the zone.
Although important companies operating in the area of car rental such as America Car Rental, CarFlex Renta Car, Enterprise, Hertz, Jet Van, etc., which make up a notable activity in car rental in Cancun, are raising awareness and introducing the electric car rental, there is still much to contribute.
This new city is conceived to have an avant-garde and sustainable mobility system: MIC (Chain Mobility) has proposed an articulated transport system that allows residents and visitors to leave their vehicles on the outskirts of the city and rely solely on electric and semi-automatic internal mobility, managing to reduce emissions within the city almost steel.
Water is considered in the project as a key element: wastewater produced in the city will be recycled and used for irrigation and agriculture. At the entrance there will be a large reservoir where there is a desalination tower, from there it will be distributed through different channels to the city and, if necessary, to the belt of agricultural fields.
This project represents a new challenge to address and deal with a more sustainable tourism at a time when infrastructure needs to be expanded at all scales.
How did someone say … "Yes we need to build more to grow, at least we should do it consistently and trying to respect the environment". We do not know if this is the correct way or the correct direction, but at least it is a way that begins to project a new urbanism and architecture more in accordance with respect for the environment without fracturing the economy of an area.
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