 Inside Africa's $60 million iconic hub in Silicon Valley, the $60 million icon building serves as the focal point of Botswana's Silicon Valley style technological incubator. It is a reflection of the country's mineral wealth as well as its need to look beyond it. Africa has witnessed the devastation that resource wealth can cause. Glistening corporate headquarters are frequently flanked by shantytowns and locations like Luanda, Angola and Johannesburg, South Africa. Occasionally the office towers themselves are abandoned as the commodities run out. Botswana is making an effort to avoid falling prey to such traps severely. Diamond mining is a major component of its economy. The Juwanning open pit mine, the richest in the world, is located there and is jointly operated by the De Beers Group, a company based in the United Kingdom. However the government is well aware that diamond mining will eventually end. In small nation of around 2.3 million people income inequality and unemployment are major issues. Botswana has set out to entice new investment outside the mining sector which accounts for 80% of the country's export profits and is the largest single contributor to government revenue as the country no longer extracts as many carrots as it once did. To do that it will employ a technology and innovation center located in a beautiful new iconic structure, a strategy for economic development used by towns all over the world. Hello guys, welcome to another episode on our channel. We shall be taking a tour inside the iconic $60 million icon building in Silicon Valley, the place where Botswana's dreams come to reality. The $60 million icon building designed by the New York based architecture firm SHOP is one of the most expensive government funded structures constructed since Botswana gained independence from the UK in 1966. It makes up the majority of the state-run Botswana innovation hubs Science and Technology Park. When flying into the nation's capital Gaborum it's difficult to see the structure since according to SHOP it has an extremely enormous green roof for the area. However in this semi-arid climate the greenery is typically more earthy in color. The layered low slung building is only visible at ground level erupting from the ground like something from the cover of a Frank Herbert science fiction book. The project which has already leased space ahead of its anticipated completion has a law on the line for Botswana. The World Bank stated in a 2017 report it co-authored on the concept of leapfrogging at the country's infrastructure, technology and policy gaps necessitate disruptive solutions something Africa accomplished with the widespread adoption of mobile phone technology skipping entirely landlines. The authors of the article came to the conclusion that squarely focusing on identifying investment opportunities that could reduce the distance to the technology frontier should therefore be the starting point in thinking about African development. That is roughly the idea Botswana's government had in mind when creating this brand new incubator for ideas. According to Alan Bosch-Wain CEO of the Botswana Innovation Hub the idea is to house partnerships and foster innovation for local startups. The structure has specialized labs for research and other collaboration housing functionality. Botswana chose an architecture firm with substantial experience in Silicon Valley style workplaces to create a facility that promotes such work. Bill Sharples the founder of SHOP claims that we were ingrained in this innovation hub mentality. Only a few years before to the government's design competition SHOP created the planned new headquarters for San Francisco based ride-sharing company Uber as well as office buildings for Google's Mountain View campus. With that history in mind SHOP who also created the Barclay Center in Brooklyn for the NBA's Nets applied it to a plan that aimed to apply their American know-how to Southern Africa. The hub has many outdoor areas including a green courtyard and amphitheater that are intended to encourage collaboration. Traditional home to core patterns were included by local artisans self-shading facade elements glazed high-performance glass and the green roof all contribute to the building's ability to maintain a comfortable temperature in the region's frequently spulting heat. According to Stephen Garcia project director at the company concerns about the facility being too cold have even come in the summer. The project's sustainability and performative aspects were really prioritized from the beginning. The business created an iPhone app to scan and monitor through production and assembly stages while the Barclay Center was being built. They leaned even more heavily on that technology for this project in Gabarone which was located thousands of miles away working with local architects construction workers and a fabricator in Cape Town who received and executed plans sent directly from New York. If we can do that let's see if we can scale that to a place like Botswana. Sharple said of learning the ropes on a 980 million dollars project but there were several setbacks and delays in the construction of the icon building. Construction was halted after a structural error was discovered which prompted more legislative investigation. Tenants have started moving in including a mechanized mining company that plans to introduce automated processes to the country. Then the coronavirus closed borders and stalled work again. The center according to government representatives represents a national objective of transforming the country's economy to one based on information. The icon building is designed to attract tourists in contrast to the more practical mirrored glass office buildings in Gabarone and other African cities that have signified post-colonial success. Future residents will have a significant role in achieving that. According to Sharples the structure surely serves as a catalyst. It's still relatively new territory for this kind of collaborative cross-pollination research. It still has to be seen how to rent out this space. The integration of shops structure into the wider system of contemporary African architecture is not yet obvious. New projects across the continent range from the skyscraping pinnacle towers under construction in Nairobi set to be the tallest in Africa to the work of the prolific South African firm Perig & Group such as its Brazilian modernism inspired AFGRI head office building. Many are designed around efficiency a critical feature in countries where power and water shortages occur regularly. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for example, the Ladida Mercado by Spain's Volaltos Studio incorporates a host of innovative sustainability features including solar panels and rainwater collection into an indoor mall whose prefab concrete faquade shields the building from the sun. As its cities expand the hope is that the continent may be able to leave frog to the latest rain building practices. Leaving aside its history of diamond mining will be difficult for Botswana. The innovation hub will play a significant role in that process. It was created to represent the future of the country as a location that cultivates ideas rather than minds a limited resource. The fact that the project is still ongoing according to Sharples is what frustrates him the most. What we're proud to say is that it was accomplished by local labor and local manufacturing. That's where the technology plays itself out in such a lovely and poetic way the statement continues. Did you find this video interesting? Do well to leave a comment on what your thoughts are about the video and do not hesitate to like, share and subscribe to Africa Reloaded for more interesting updates.