Siemens to build Vienna’s “smart city”

Siemens is to start building a “smart city” in Vienna which will be one of the largest urban development projects in Europe.

Together they are supposed to explore ways of optimizing resources by integrating interactive communication systems, power grids and building systems.

The 38.6 million Euro budget project is due to be located in Aspern, the capital’s north-eastern district and spread over an airfield of almost 600 acres.

Whilst half of the site will be public space for small parks and a lake, the other half will feature offices, housing blocks and a business and research centre.

The “smart city” will be powered by decentralised renewable energy, complete with energy storage facilities. Here the computer technology will monitor human consumption patterns and identify the more cost-efficient behavioural patterns.

Over 17 years this small area is then supposed to develop into a city with some 20,000 inhabitants and as many jobs.

Smart cities already in existence around the world included the Aarhus Smart City (Denmark), Amsterdam Smart City (The Netherlands), Cairo Smart Village i(Egypt), Dubai SmartCity and Dubai Internet City (United Arab Emirates), Kochi SmartCity business park (India), Lyon Smart City (France), Smart City Malaga (Spain), Songdo International Business District (South Korea) and Yokohama Smart City (Japan).