Villas inside and out

If you are looking for the perfect house to buy, why not go for the smartest? On an artificial island west of Seoul is one of the largest - if not the largest - private real estate development in the world: Songdo. Started in 2000, this 22-billion-pound project seeks to build an entire new city from scratch, and not any city, but the smartest one in the world…

Cutting edge technology will be embedded in every corner of Songdo's 1500 acres. The entire city will be cabled with fiber optic broadband so that its inhabitants can stay connected at all times. Computers will be built within every home. TelePresence screens will be installed in every house, office, hospital and shopping center so that video calls can be made at any time and any place.

Much of the city will be green so that storm water can be reduced and sunshine absorbed. Electrical charging stations and bicycle lanes will be pervasive. Rubbish will be sucked through a pneumatic collection system of waste removal. Home energy systems will be monitored so that power demand can be dealt with more efficiently.

Sensors will be implanted in the city's streets and buildings to monitor virtually everything in it: the weather, traffic, road conditions and what not. Continuous data will be sent to a central hub by these sensors so that Songdo can respond instantly to any problem and run at maximum efficiency.

To give just a few examples, whenever jammed traffic occurs; sensors will send data to the central hub, which in turn will adjust traffic lights to calm congestion. If a street is left unfrequented at night, sensors will send data and lamp lights will be turned off automatically. If a bus is coming sooner than expected, sensors will send data to alert residents so that they can catch it.

Time will not be wasted, energy will be saved, air will be clean and problems will be avoided, or quickly fixed. Songdo is planned to be completed in 2015 and will have 80,000 apartments. Like a mind, constantly fed with data stream, Songdo will be a city that thinks…

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