Metro Manila takes first steps into the 'future'

Metro Manila is one of the most populated and developed regions of the country, with the capital city, Manila, responsible in large part for the regions progress compared to the rest of the Phillipines. It makes sense then that the Greenfield Development Corporation and Cisco have teamed up to develop the most futuristic residential community in the country ever.

Cisco System, a publicly listed multinational corporation with its headquarters in the United States, is no stranger to embracing the future. It is a leading developer of household and commercial consumer electronic that provide communication and networking services, while Greenfield Development is no stranger to ambitious construction projects. The company is one of the most innovative, diversified and fastest growing real estate companies in the country.

The collaboration between the two is, therefore, a perfect fit. The community they plan to develop has been revealed to Manila news media as Twin Oaks Place in the Greenfield District of Mandaluyong City in Metro Manila. The residential development essentially comprises of two massive apartments complexes that will feature the most state-of-the-art homes ever built in the Philippines with fiber-optic cables, superfast internet, video-conferencing facilities and even remote control capabilities so that residents can control the climate, run a bath, close the curtains and perform a range of other activities within their house without even being there.

According to Cisco, the company responsible for the futuristic aspect to the development, this project will redefine the urban landscape of the Metro and provide sustainable living alternatives for the future. Such rhetoric is not fully explained in their press release though. The website for Twin Oaks Place refers to “a home you can see and control without being in it” and this is due to the use of fiber optics and wireless technology. This technology, according to press releases made available to Manila news media, will also enable the development of “smart+connected communities”, these smart and connected communities will use the internet to “realize sustainable economic growth” and “ensure a thriving, safe community where constituents are free to live, work, learn, and play”, but it is unclear how these objectives will be reached.

It seems that there is some transference envisioned, of the internet’s impact on our lives to its impact on cities and urban communities, the Cisco website promotes “community+connect” and “community+exchange” as the means by which people and the public-private sector will be ‘connected’ in order to create this future society. It’s a noble idea and one that will certainly, according to the ideals of the project, benefit the urban landscape of Metro Manila, but there is reason to hope that more details will become available as the development goes ahead.

The project is part of the broader development of Greenfield District, a “smart+connected” community that comprises a 10.5 hectare area of residential and commercial units in mostly high-rise towers.