Community Center
Eco-friendly community
Digital Market
Proposed Smart Growth Concept
Agricultural Farmlands
PROPOSED SMART GROWTH MASTERPLAN
In our attempt to address the challenges facing most of Africa’s urban centers, we chose to use Suhum as a case study for the Experimental Africa competition organized by the Ambrosseti Foundation in Italy. Our proposal is a Masterplan for 10,000 people. Suhum, currently exceeds this population, and it is our intention that this plan becomes a model of growth to accommodate the next 10,000 inhabitants.
The proposed design takes a holistic approach to urban space planning, combining a simple traditional concept with practical solutions that responds to the site and the local culture. The objective of the design is two-fold: To define the limit of growth for Suhum, and to introduce a smart growth concept in the form of a balanced and a self sustaining community.
The balanced community idea is characterized by 5 themes: open space, food and water, flexibility, and local identity. The districts or neighborhoods would be interconnected by common green spaces, and a network of roads that runs through the entire development. The periphery of the town is primarily allocated for agricultural farmlands to produce food for the community. As part of the energy requirements for the development, we propose to use parts of the farmland as solar fields to harvest solar energy.
