![]() ![]() Especially for the private sector, it’s all about planning and controlling.”įataar, who runs the Future Cities consultants, warns that in an African context these projects tend to benefit a small elite, rather than the population as a whole: “These visions are often contrary to what’s needed.” Rashiq Fataar, an urbanist based in South Africa, agrees that many smart-city projects on the continent are based on the desire to start with a fresh slate. “But in many places in Africa, including Mauritius, so-called smart city developments actually do the opposite: they create exclusive urban cities far away from the dust, chaos and inequality of the existing cityscape,” Moingeon explains. “In Europe when we talk about smart cities, we think of revitalisation of existing cities,” says Bertrand Moingeon, a professor at HEC in Paris who studies urban development in Mauritius. ![]() Photograph: Christopher Schuetze/The Guardian As the world’s cities grow and intelligent urban design becomes a global discipline, a vision of this tiny African island’s future demonstrates that the concept of a smart city is far from standardised.Įbène Cybercity was built entirely from scratch on sugar cane fields. Now in its second decade, Cybercity highlights an important difference in planned urban growth between developed and developing countries. But when BPML commissioned a second building a few years later, they used local architects and construction companies – heralded at the time as an example of the Mauritians’ ability to learn quickly from foreigners. The initial phase of the project in 2001 – the building of the 12-storey Cyber Tower 1 – was designed, engineered and built by Indian companies, with financing for the project covered by loans guaranteed by the Indian government, in what Chetty calls a “turn key” construction. create exclusive urban cities far away from the dust, chaos and inequality of the existing cityscape Bertrand Moingeon “It’s actually a whole ecosystem of facilities: intelligent buildings, air conditioning and electric backup,” says Koomaren Chetty, CEO of Business Parks of Mauritius (BPML), the company founded by the government to create and run Cybercity. Despite the island’s geographic distance from mainland Africa, the hub is so well connected that it hosts the African Network Information Center, the internet registry platform for the entire continent. Photograph: Christopher Schuetzeĭespite its many flaws, the 64-hectare campus boasts high-speed internet – which just a half a decade ago was a rarity in the country – backup electricity generators to bridge frequent power cuts, and networking systems to guarantee that big businesses can stay online constantly. The interior courtyard of Cyber Tower 1, the city’s showpiece. Like other local observers, Macbeth says that despite its many design flaws, the project did what it set out to do: create a modern working environment in the African island state, while ameliorating traffic conditions in the capital, Port Louis.īuilt on sugar cane fields roughly 15km to the south along the M1 (one of two modern highways that bisect the country) and completely disconnected from the surrounding urban fabric, Cybercity was promoted as a leap into the future for Mauritius. “It’s far from perfect, but it’s better than we had before,” says Ross Macbeth, a Scottish-trained architect based in Mauritius. While the development can be criticised for a shocking lack cohesiveness, poor public transport, limited parking or even difficult access by foot, its creation did bring many aspects of modern connected life to Mauritian workers. ![]() Both an urban planning disaster and – for many proud Mauritians – the very definition of modern office life, Cybercity was first proposed by the government in 2001 as a high-tech hub, and now houses almost 25,000 mostly educated, middle-class workers during the week. ![]()
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