PROJECTS
PROJECT AT A GLANCE
The Woven City features a sustainable design with buildings made mostly from carbon neutral wood.
Classification: Mixed development
(Source: BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group)
Location: Susono, Shizuoka, Japan Approx. Project Cost: Undisclosed
WOVEN CITY @ SHIZUOKA, JAPAN
Approx. Commencement Date: 2021 (Phase 1) Approx. Completion Date: To be announced
T
oyota Motor Corporation has unveiled plans to build a prototype ‘city of the future’ on a 175acre site at the base of mystical Mount Fuji in Japan. Building cities might not be the domain of car and vehicle manufacturers but Toyota has taken the bull by the horns and romped away with this project to create a first in the world for which the visionary leaders of the corporation must be duly complimented. DEVELOPMENT COMPOSITION Touted as a “living laboratory”, the first phase of the development on the site of a former car factory will be home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment. Woven City is being designed by Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and is scheduled to break ground in 2021. The city will be built around a network of streets that cater for transportation at three different speeds. The main street of Woven City will be used by autonomous vehicles including the Toyota e-Palette, smaller streets will be for other modes of personal transport such as bicycles, scooters and Toyota’s i-walk whilst the third type of street will cater to pedestrians only. These three types of streets will then weave together into a woven grid of 3 × 3 city blocks to help accelerate the testing of autonomy. Buildings throughout the development will be built from
22 Building & Investment | www.b-i.biz
CREDIT LIST CLIENT: TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION + KALEIDOSCOPE CREATIVE ARCHITECT: BJARKE INGELS GROUP (BIG)
