Green Smart mega CITY

As you peer out from a small window on final descent to Lanseria Airport you see the alluring, glimmering, sheen of a brand-new city, almost like a new Atlantis, it sits and awaits your discovery. What lies before you have been dubbed the Lanseria Mega or Smart or Green City, names are pending, but exciting is what it should be called, at least for now. Lanseria airport is its central attraction and focal point. This new development will bring with it international and local travellers in search of gold, or at least a couple of business deals. Speculation is rife on the wonders this new city will offer but it has been rumoured the city will act mainly as a business hub.

Why a business hub out in the so called sticks at Lanseria, you might hear some concerned Capetonians mumble, but those who use the road daily know that it is a perfect middle point between Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Mining Riches that lies in the North-West province. It is the perfect location for a new city with the ever-upgrading airport at its heart.

Green City

The Lanseria Airport City will be a green city which will “interface with nature” and is designed for minimal environmental impact. It will feature rainwater harvesting and solar energy to ensure that it has an exceedingly small carbon footprint. “Lanseria Airport City is a green city of growth and opportunity that will enable all to work, play, live and dream,” Crosspoint said. Crosspoint of course being the property partner of the project. He added that it will also be a leading benchmark for green infrastructure. Which is good as the already constrained power grids cannot handle another Sandton sized city popping up in ten years.

Mega City

The project would create 50,000 residential units and approximately 5 million square metres of commercial floor space. Ramaphosa said the new smart-city will be home to between 350,000 and 500,000 people within the next decade. One must wonder if the owners of the expansive mansions on the plots adjacent to the airport have been notified of the new neighbours. These stats are alarming as the roads leading into this mega city thing will have to be upgraded to accommodate additional travellers on the road, something that has already started for those that frequents the R512. Streetlights and power infrastructure seem to be making its way to the site as well. And recently more work to the already tyred (this is a dad joke) looking road. It is said that this is largest and most exciting property development ever seen in South Africa.

Smart City

Starting with a blank canvas makes it easier to paint a new picture or City in this regard. When I say paint it, means paint with technology infrastructures. Fibre and 5G connection networks, solar and alternative energy sources, architecturally designed smart buildings with light sensors, LED lamps, solar water heaters and all the latest in green living technologies. From early reports this seems like the design methodology for the sparkling new city sprouting roots close to Gauteng’s preferred local airport. The Gauteng government said last year that the ‘Lanseria Airport City Mega Project’ is designed to be a high-density mixed-use residential area. The city’s infrastructure and economy are centred on the airport and are designed to promote “a new city form of cross-cultural living”. Not only smart in a technology sense but also progressive in a social economic way.

Having various cultures and nations live and work in a centralised hub for one goal, propelling South Africans into the 4th industrial revolution. The world might be getting smaller as we strive to interconnect populations and cultures from all over into huge hubs for business and residential living. Taking a page from the successes of cities like Dubai and those in Saudi Arabia and Qatar this might be the pilot project for something bigger to explore.