### Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou  
Architect and anthropologist, founder of the HubCité project



 

 

 



Rejecting Western smart cities, which he feels are too top-down and remote from people’s real needs, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou is a champion of the neo-vernacular African city. This alternative vision of the smart city, inspired by traditional societies and the organic ways they work through peer-to-peer exchanges at the village level, proposes a city that is horizontal and distributed.

A city designed for and by residents at the local level making free use of new technologies as they see fit. A real-life application of this urban utopia can be found in Lomé where the HubCité project applies the principles of the neo-vernacular African city at the neighborhood level. HubCité exists to help people participate in how their city is designed and operated thanks to a network of technology innovation spaces, WoeLabs, that are dedicated to ultra-local urban projects. Each space serves a given area and supplies, on site, the resources that city-dwellers need to develop solutions that respond to their real needs, including waste collection, energy and 3D printing.



 

 

 



 

 

  [  ![](/sites/g/files/dvc2551/files/styles/crop_freeform/public/image/2021/01/Essential%20Services%20in%20Africa%20-%20p40.jpg.webp?h=66996509&itok=Ss5ay9lv)  ](https://www.institut.veolia.org/sites/g/files/dvc2551/files/document/2021/01/The%20Veolia%20Institute%20Review%20-%20Essential%20Services%20in%20Africa%20-%20p40%20S%C3%A9nam%C3%A9%20Koffi%20Agbodjinou.pdf)  



[Read more](https://www.institut.veolia.org/sites/g/files/dvc2551/files/document/2021/01/The%20Veolia%20Institute%20Review%20-%20Essential%20Services%20in%20Africa%20-%20p40%20S%C3%A9nam%C3%A9%20Koffi%20Agbodjinou.pdf)



 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 





### Resources

 

[Contents page of the issue](/en/publications/veolia-institute-review-facts-reports/water-waste-energy-prospects-essential-services)

 



 

 

 

 

[Download the full pdf of the issue](https://www.institut.veolia.org/sites/g/files/dvc2551/files/document/2021/03/FACTS_ACCES_AUX_SE-V2-EN.pdf)