Archinect - News

Pop star Akon set to break ground on Senegal's first LEED-certified crypto-city

2020-01-22T20:18:00-05:00

Global pop star Akon and Senegalese government officials are readying to break ground on a new ground-up 2,000-acre sustainable tourism city near the country's capital, Dakar.

Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future pic.twitter.com/dsoYpmjnpf
— AKON (@Akon) January 13, 2020

CNN reports that the musician-turned-businessman and government officials recently signed an official agreement initiating the development of the city. In a tweet marking the occasion, Akon writes, "Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future." The project is being developed with the help of SAPCO, Senegal's state-owned tourism company, Africa News reports. Hussein Bakri, BAD Consultant, Semer Group are credited with the design of the project has not been announced, while the Sana'a-based engineering firm Yemeni Group is listed as another project partner.

Proposed renderings of Akon Cit...

Watch an urban planner play SimCity with real world commentary

2018-08-17T14:45:00-04:00

In this extended short, City Beautiful takes on the old school classic SimCity from the perspective of a professional planner 20 years later. Along the way, City Beautiful provides pertinent observations of game play versus reality.

Urban Design Ph.D student Dave Amos circles back around to the game that sparked his passion as a kid playing computer games. An advocate for sustainable living and diverse cities, Amos plays through the old school SimCity game providing relevant insights learned over the years in his career.

Cloud-harvesting skyscraper: renderings of proposed new sustainable Tokyo development

2016-01-14T18:20:00-05:00

What's new(ish) in large-scale, sustainable development? Well, the Next Tokyo 2045 project is in the running. Described by CTBUH in a journal paper as "a mile-high tower rooted in intersecting ecologies," the 12.5 square kilometer project is designed to be a protective barrier against coastal erosion, a mid-bay transit hub, and an experiment in dense urban vertical development via a 1,600-meter high "Sky Mile" tower and several smaller mixed-use towers.

Developed as part of a collaboration between Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the design was initially unveiled back in February of 2015, and features proposed elements including an articulated facade that enables "cloud-harvesting" as a means of collecting water for the project dwellers, solar power, and the "capture of kinetic energy from trains running across the bay" as a means of powering mechanical systems.

The project hopes to house roughly a half million people.