Woven City, the city of the future according to Toyota

6 years ago

Giulia Guido

It was presented a few days ago at the CES – Consumer Electronics Show, the city of the future by Toyota and designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingles and his studio Bjarke Ingles Group. The first Woven City will be built in Japan, at the foot of Mount Fuji and will host the employees of the Toyota Motor Corporation itself, starting with a minimum of 2000 people and increasing its capacity year after year.

The project follows the latest trends in the architectural field, which seems to commit all the studios to design a new type of city – as we saw with Stefano Boeri’s Smart Forest City -, for this very reason the Woven City will be entirely powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

As stated by the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda: building a complete city from the ground up is a unique opportunity to develop the technologies of the future.

In fact, the prospectus has also been a pretext for experimenting with new technologies, or developing new ones, and founding a city on them, where digital operating systems connect infrastructures, buildings and vehicles, exploiting them to 100% of their possibilities and where artificial intelligence will merge with everyday life.

The actual design of the Woven City, however, starts from the road network, distinguishing three types of roads: one that can only be traveled by fast, electrically powered, zero-emission vehicles; one dedicated to vehicles capable of reaching low speeds, such as bicycles; and the last one designed exclusively for pedestrians.

The design of the streets, but also of the squares, the many common areas, and buildings, will provide for the almost exclusive use of wood, following the centuries-old tradition of Japanese carpentry; while the roofs of the buildings will consist of photovoltaic panels, allowing the city to produce all the useful energy inside.

Moreover, to make the Woven City totally eco-sustainable, spaces throughout the city will be dedicated to the cultivation of native and hydroponic vegetation.

The inauguration of the first Woven City is scheduled for the beginning of 2021 and we hope it will represent a valid and functional alternative to today’s cities.