Work on Uruguay smart city set to start soon

Construction of +Colonia, a smart city development in Uruguay's Colonia del Sacramento, Río de la Plata region, is about to start.

Environmental authority Dinacea issued the permit in June.

The first stage is focused on the US$500mn Genesis District, planned to be finished by 2025.

Initially, planned as an innovation hub for companies, the smart city was redesigned with a strong residential component, as remote work gained traction during the pandemic.

"The great challenge that companies face is that they do not choose where they are, but rather their employees choose where they want to be," Eduardo Bastitta, founder of Plaza Logística and one developer leading the project, told BNamericas.

“+Colonia is a large urbanization of districts projects with corporate districts, generic districts and sectorial districts, where the idea is to group small and medium-sized companies. We are working on gaming, crypto, biotechnological, audiovisual districts ... among others,” he added.

The districts are designed with input from Argentine and Uruguayan sector chambers.

“We are projecting an investment of US$2bn in the next 15 to 20 years,” Bastitta said. Overall, 20 districts will offer housing for nearly 30,000 residents in the next 14 years. Of the 430 units that were offered, 300 have been sold.

Nearly 30 technology startups signed an action commitment to co-create the area and settle there.

“One of the great challenges is the timing of the works. So one job we're doing is trying to speed up. Some of our founders are linked to new construction technologies such as 3D printing of houses and buildings,” Bastitta said.

ICT INFRASTRUCTURE

State telco Antel has been involved for over 18 months, as it will provide Wi-Fi 6, 5G and datacenter connectivity.

One private and one public fiber network are planned, the latter run by Antel, as well as reserving a portion of Antel's 5G network for private use.

The second stage includes the construction of an edge datacenter for mission-critical applications and to support smart city services.

“The biggest demand for connectivity, in addition to the city as a whole, will come from gaming and autonomous vehicles,” Bastitta said.

He revealed that work with the government is underway to create a regulatory sandbox for operating autonomous vehicles.

In addition, urban infrastructure technology, smart buildings, energy networks, and water and waste management, among others, are planned.

BLOCKCHAIN

The Colonia governing board approved the use of blockchain to govern urbanization. Through a blockchain platform, +Colonia residents may propose and vote how public spaces will be developed.

“We are achieving a kind of direct democracy through technology. We began little by little to build the legal and agreed tools with the governing board,” according to Bastitta.

Each resident will get a governance token and a benefits token, which include free tickets between Buenos Aires and Colonia.