The New Songdo City now taking shape in South Korea sets a controversial example for future Asian cities. It is the biggest and most expensive example of a ‘ubiquitous city’ (or U-City) to date. Information systems are the key in U-Cities, connecting every major service, business and individual to one, ubiquitous information web.
Viewed with caution in the West for its high levels of control, U-Cities however represent an interesting option for certain parts of Asia where centralised political control meets massive urbanisation. With first residential phases of New Songdo City selling well in South Korea, tantalizing possibilities have opened up in mainland China for Gale International the American developer behind the project.
New Songdo City is built on 1500 acres of reclaimed land along the Incheon waterfront. Measuring 100 million square feet it is the world’s largest private real estate development, and at US$ 35 billion it is one of the most expensive in history.
No cost has been spared to create a luxury environment attractive to top businesses, despite these businesses being so far slow to take space. Master planners KPF designed a 100 acre central park like that of New York, a network of canals with water taxis like Venice, and the 68 story Northeast Asia Trade Tower - Korea’s tallest building. There is also a designer golf course, state of the art international school and a US$155 million convention centre. To top off its marketing credentials, 80 percent of the buildings will aim for LEED certification with the whole development aiming for LEED ND.
Tom Murcott, Gale International’s executive vice president, explains that though New Songdo City is a planned, Greenfield development, they aim to avoid the pitfalls of famous planned cities in the past such as Brasilia. Focusing on technology, the city is planned to increase quality of life rather than to be a “monument to architecture.”
“Creating a liveable city is like making a necklace, you have to put the gems in the right places so the whole thing looks good,” says Murcott.
Holding the necklace together is information technology, which connects all services, buildings and individuals in New Songdo City to one central control.
Cisco who provides the ICT, describes a future where major services such as fire, medicine, transport and energy are interconnected. If anything goes wrong in one system, other affected systems are automatically alerted to action. Individuals are plugged into the city network able to access their doctors, teachers, work files and friends from giant teleconference screens at home. In return, city controllers constantly monitor the energy use of each individual and make recommendations for example to turn off lights. This they claim can reduce wasted energy by 30 percent.
Not all these features are available in New Songdo City. However apartments are equipped with teleconference systems linking them to friends, and a concierge that can book various city services.
Critics speculated that this hugely costly venture is built on shaky economics, but the residential portion has been successful. In 2006 when the first batch of 2,600 apartments came up for sale they were oversubscribed by eight to one despite the recession. On average condos cost US$ 500,000 and in May 2009, 45,000 people visited model homes for five new apartment complexes in a single weekend.
Could it work here?
Mainland China seems ideally placed to adopt U-cities. Such a centralised system necessitates high degrees of government involvement to plan, implement, and run, which is how many Chinese cities are being developed now.
“We have seen the most opportunities in China by far in terms contracts and resources,” says Murcott. Gale is currently working on a master plan for Meixi Lake District outside Changsha, Hunan Province. At 1,675 acres it is even bigger than Songdo. They have also signed MOUs with the cities of Chongqing and Wuxi. Gale claims over 25 city governments in China have approached them to discuss possibilities.
In China, Murcott says there’s greater alignment between levels of government. “They really mandate it when decisions are made, we don’t have to lobby so many different constituents as we do in Korea.”
Another factor is the breakthrough in cloud computing that allows all IT infrastructure to be outsourced to the developer. In a private room at CISCO’s Shanghai expo pavilion, government delegations are shown a small box the size of a hi-fi that contains all the information needed to run a city. This box can be located and managed anywhere.
Their model is what Murcott calls a, ‘city in a box just add water.’ In China where cities are being created from scratch at an unprecedented pace, there is a desire for quick, all round solutions by inexperienced local governments.
But the inscrutable Chinese political machine also holds pitfalls.
Another large scale, planned eco-city called Dongtan off the cost of Shanghai fell through after years of planning and investment. It was hailed as the largest, most innovative eco-city of its kind and received international attention for many years. Then it became apparent that the master plans developed by foreign firm Arup would never turn into reality.
To avoid a similar fate, Murcott says the key is to make sure there’s central government awareness of the project. “It’s crucial that all levels are lined up and committed, and that they understand it’s a multibillion dollar investment.”
But the ultimate question is whether China’s social infrastructure – such as medical services – can support this new way of life. CISCO’s displays at the Expo emphasises that the technology is not a dream, it’s already here. But technology is only a platform for moral and social decisions. In that respect it will be a long time before China’s software catches up with the hardware.
Facts & Figures
- Commercial: 40 million square feet
- Residential: 35 million square feet
- Retail: 10 million square feet
- Hospitality: 5 million square feet
- Public space: 10 million square feet
- Total development: 100 million square foot
- Cost: US$35 billion
- No. Apartments: 80,000
- LEED Buildings: Aiming for80 percent of development
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