CITE (Centre for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) project is a plan developed by the technology company Pegasus Global Holdings, which has commissioned the design of the city to the architectural practice Perkins+Will. The city consists of a full-scale model of an ordinary American town of nearly 4,000 hectares where urban experiments (transport, construction, communication, security, etc.) will be carried out. Robert Brumley, General Director General of Pegasus, says:
"The vision is an environment where new products, services and technologies can be demonstrated and tested without disrupting everyday life."
The possibilities of experimentation increase exponentially when the human factor, and all the difficulties involved, is eliminated from the context. An example of this would be the possibility to test autonomous cars, which could be used on the roads themselves, having the traffic monitored by drones. Houses could be designed to survive natural disasters. They could also test alternative sources of energy, such as thorium energy.
"This should become like a magnet where people with ideas and technologies come, and not just test but interact."
The city is expected to attract prestigious clients, both from public and private organizations, so that someday CITE will rival the level of technological sites such as Silicon Valley. Although the idea of "future city" has been going around for several years now, as it is manifested in the city of Masdar (Abu Dhabi) or PlanIT Valley in Portugal, CITE is confident that, as the first city devoted exclusively to full-scale tests, given the variety and scale of experimentation that allows, will be a success. According to Brumley:
"The facility is open to anybody who wants to test. That makes it unique."
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