China is building a high-tech 'COVID-proof' smart city designed for future lockdowns

• A new "COVID-proof" smart city is being planned in China.
• The development, built by Spanish architects Guallart, has been designed with future lockdowns in mind.
• The community in Xiong'an will feature apartments with balconies, a terrace for drone deliveries, co-working spaces, a vegetable garden, greenhouse, and food market.

A new "COVID-proof" city is being planned in China, designed for people to live in during future lockdowns.

Spanish architects Guallart won a competition to build the community in Xiong'an, and the hope is it will be a model for "a new standard in the post-COVID era" that can be used in cities around the world.

Designed as a "self-sufficient city," the development is set to include apartments with large balconies, vegetable gardens, greenhouses, solar panels, communal workspaces, a pool, food market, kindergarten, and drone-friendly terraces designed for deliveries.

Many of the streets will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists, and there will be lots of greenery.

The idea is to provide "a full life in times of confinement," a press release reads.

"We cannot continue designing cities and buildings as if nothing had happened," Guallart said.

"Our proposal stems from the need to provide solutions to the various crises that are taking place in our planet at the same time, in order to create a new urban life based in the circular bioeconomy that will empower cities and communities."

The buildings will have an "internal metabolic system" that will integrate energy production, recycled water, food production, and material reuse to promote sustainability.