A Smart City or Smart City is one that connects its inhabitants through the use of technologies such as a video surveillance network, sensors, information technologies and the internet of things, but also through a friendly and connected infrastructure.

Living in a mixed development like Reforma 222 where in a single space there is an office tower, apartments, a shopping center, restaurants, cafes, a gym, a cinema and a hotel, is the ideal concept of what complexes should be in a smart city.

However, the economic conditions and the size of Mexico City limit access to housing of this type for very few people.

The reality is that smart cities not only have to do with technology because we can implement measures such as a network of cameras, such as the C5 in Mexico City, but as long as we do not make a friendlier place to live, it is not intelligent, said Mariana. Padilla, real estate investor and business developer

The CEO of TOPP Inteligencia Empresarial considers that Mexico City is a little behind in its conversion to a Smart City, but it is not an impossible mission.

“It is difficult because the urban stain has already invaded all spaces and the working class has been relegated to the suburbs. For a large part of the citizenry there is no way to live outside the urban area ”, he explained.

Currently, 80% of the people who work in the Polanco or Santa Fe office area live two hours away.

For Padilla, one of the solutions to make Mexico City a friendlier and more connected place is redensification, which would allow the construction of houses with more than three or four floors in neighborhoods such as Del Valle, Centro or Tacubaya. Which would also lower the price of housing.

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In Colonia Del Valle they limit you to building three or four-story buildings and for the price of the land, the department has to be worth 7 or 12 million pesos, but if they allowed redensification, you could build 50 apartments on the same land that would cost three or four times less.

Currently, the Government of Mexico City, together with the National Housing Fund Institute for Workers and housing developers, are implementing a program to build affordable housing in 11 strategic corridors: Historic Center, Tacuba-San Cosme, Chapultepec , Reforma Norte, Eje Central Sur y Norte, Pino Suárez-Tlalpan, Tacubaya, Vallejo I, Colonia Atlampa, Atlampa-Tacubaya and Zona Rosa.

The objective of this urban regeneration plan is that 20% of new real estate developments in these areas are affordable for citizens.

Padilla added that it is unfair to compare Mexico City with European cities, the most advanced in the Smart City concept, since the size of Amsterdam, New Zealand or Barcelona does not compare with the country's capital.

“Those countries have less than a quarter of the population of Mexico and the extension. So it is easier for them to organize and agree.

“Amsterdam fits in with Polanco. It is very neat, pretty and clean, but we have to size it. We are too big a country. All of Spain fits in Chihuahua ”, highlighted Padilla.

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In this context, cities such as Mexico, Guadalajara or Monterrey are going to face great challenges to become intelligent, but other smaller ones such as Morelia, Puebla or Léon can still be rescued and make a different plan.

Another element that would help create smarter cities is the design and construction of new buildings, recommending the incorporation of ecological, sustainable and light materials, and eco-technologies for lower energy consumption.

But unfortunately, the cost of these materials and technologies is higher, so developers continue to build with the same systems from years ago, which implies an excess of waste of material, construction times and transportation of inputs, said Padilla. .

Mexican architects are designing smart and sustainable buildings, but it is urgent to allow redensification so that the cost of construction does not limit access to this type of housing to a few citizens.

In Solili you can check offices available in Polanco, Reforma e Insurgentes

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