ANDALUCÍA’S CITY OF KNOWLEDGE
ISÁPOLIS
IMPORTANT NOTE 18/07/06 : This project is outstanding due to the latest
planning and zoning measures affecting the town of Marbella.
WHAT IS IT? · WHERE? · WHY? · WHAT FOR? · HOW? · WHEN?
 CONCEPT. WHAT IS IT?
Isápolis City of Knowledge is a urban space where productive uses (scientific, technological, entrepreneurial and advanced services), along with additional services and residential uses (equipment, relationship and commerce) are joined, using information and communications technology, and cooperating with centres of proven experience in the innovation cycle. This gives place to a varied and complex environment, where creativity and innovation are encouraged, this way easing social interaction, enabling the world’s access to the Web and delivering a collective well-being.
The objective is to achieve, through this agglomeration economy, that financial, social and environmental challenges of the contemporary city are approached with competition, equity and sustainability strategies.
WHERE?
It is in an area of approximately 400Ha between Marbella and Ojén, directly communicated with Costa del Sol’s highway and Mediterráneo’s motorway, 22 minutes away from Malaga’s airport, with a rich geomorphology and broad views of the Mediterranean Sea.
WHY?
The entrepreneurial nature of the Luque family, with the current diversification and expansion process of its hotel activity - Fuerte Hoteles Chain- and its commitment with the city of Marbella and Andalucía’s society are the main engine generating this initiative.
The certainty that it is urgent to complement the productive network of Costa del Sol with uses which are compatible with its activity, and that such uses must be oriented towards innovation through information and communications technology, within the context of an autonomic community which has unequivocally bet for this, permeate this initiative.
WHAT FOR?
The effects caused by the agglomeration in one space of productive, additional services and residential uses, favouring social interaction and information exchange, as well as the application of the innovation concept in the attraction of new residents – the scientific-technological community- of a different profile than the normal tourist or resident of Costa del Sol are the objectives pursued with this initiative.
The function of the technopolis is to enable the generation of the basic information economy materials, as well as offering companies the necessary spaces for the incorporation of information to the products offered to the market, since technological innovation, manufacture of technologically advanced equipment and technological diffusion must be interconnected processes.
HOW?
Nanotechnology, advanced materials, information and communications technology, process engineering, renewable energies, biotechnology, etc. in the field of technological innovation, generation of physical spaces of advanced design in a pleasant physical environment for the installation of official agencies, university and research organizations, manufacturing companies and advanced services; the construction of residential communities of varied morphology and typology, dense population, Mediterranean population, and residences mainly addressed to the owners, executives and workers of the technopolis; the construction of buildings to establish additional services such as spaces for congresses, relationships, hotels, catering, health, offices, etc. all of it established in a neighbourhood provided with infrastructures and state-of-the-art telecommunications services.
WHEN?
The strategic plan for the implementation is divided into three stages:
- Previous stage (one year): whereby society and institutions are expected to receive entrepreneurial initiative, in order to reach an agreement on the terms of its development so that it is a project feasible businesswise speaking. Subscribe with the Administration, University and Research Centres the appropriate cooperation agreements.
Having initiated this stage with the public introduction of the plan and of the agreement reached with the high technology company PRINCIPIA TECHNOLOGY GROUP, INC., MIT spin-off devoted to the search of a better process of technological transfer for the implementation of the Principia Foundation and of an Innovation Centre.
- Starting stage (two years): after the consolidation of the agreements with the institutions and the launching of the marketing plan, the construction and developing process of the following facilities will begin:
- Headquarters of business group El Fuerte (Fuerte Hoteles) and its Foundation, where approximately 100 persons will work.
- Headquarters of FOUNDATION PRINCIPIA.
- Building for congress spaces.
- Innovation Centre, which will include a nanotechnology lab.
- First company incubator.
- Development stage: where all institutions and companies will establish themselves, residential complexes and additional services will be built depending on demand which, in turn, will de determined by the implementation pace of scientific and productive uses. This stage begins jointly with the starting stage expecting a total of 15 years to reach the end of the process of implementation and construction.
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