#You tube akon beautiful series#

So while this one seems rather delirious when you first see it, there are actually many other recent examples that are quite comparable.

#You tube akon beautiful series#

Specifically, I have been looking at a series of similar initiatives throughout the African continent over the past few years. My ongoing scholarship related to the phenomenon of speculative urbanization essentially looks at the promotion of large-scale real estate development initiatives by public and private actors that are physically ambitious in their scale and highly speculative from an economic or market point of view. My relationship with this project is simply as an observer. So, is this bogus or actually feasible? Will there be a follow-through with this? That is, the biomorphic or parametric aesthetic of the projectвЂ™s promotional images. The other thing IвЂ™ve seen highlighted most often is the particular architectural form. So, thatвЂ™s been a distinguishing feature picked up by the media. The construction funding and transactions that would take place in it once built are said to utilize Akoin. Part of the marketing pitch for Akon City is the funding mechanism for it. How have you perceived the dialogue around this project? You called it a вЂcryptocurrency city.вЂ™

In a Q&A with Penn Today, Christopher Marcinkoski, associate professor of landscape architecture and urban design in the Weitzman School of Design, discusses whether Akon City will actually see the light of day, its place in the phenomenon of вЂњspeculative urbanization,вЂќ and what an actual smart city should look like.

The project is supported by Senegalese President Macky Sall. The city will operate on AkonвЂ™s proprietary cryptocurrency, Akoin. The project is reported to have established $4 billion toward its target of $6 billion of funding, though backers have largely not been disclosed. City planners aim to hire workers from West Africa and source materials locally, though architecture is being led by Bakri & Associates Development Consultants in Dubai. Featured: condominiums, office parks, a university, an ocean resort, and a hospital. The projectвЂ™s details envision 2,000 acres along the Atlantic coast in a region 62 miles south of Dakar in Senegal. In early September, Akon, the popular R&B singer and, more recently, philanthropist in Africa, unveiled renderings for Akon City that depicted what project planners dub a вЂњfuturisticвЂќ city. A virtual cityscape of the future (Not an actualВ rendering of Akon City)