This week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Toyota announced that it was going full-blown Epcot. Apparently, they’re developing a 2,000-person “city of the future” in Japan. Despite Orlando already having such a thing—albeit an incredibly outdated, crowded, and humid one that annoyingly no longer attracts sitcoms—Toyota’s utopian city will live at the base of Mount Fuji, Japan’s active most famous active volcano, on a 175-acre site that was previously a Toyota factory. Ah, yes, clean hydrogen energy built atop of the carcasses of yesterday’s Rav-4s. We love to see it.
Thankfully, the livable city isn’t called Toyota Town, but ‘Woven City’, and it’ll have a fully-connected ecosystem powered by clean energy. “Envisioned as a ‘living laboratory,’ the Woven City will serve as a 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,” reads a statement from Toyota. Basically, it will be a utopian ant farm and a model for future homes, if done right. Or it’ll be exactly what Alex Garland’s new FX show, Devs, is teasing. Take your pick.
The petri dish’s first inhabitants are Toyota employees and their families, as well as Toyota retirees, retailers, and researchers. Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group is assisting with its creation, which kicks off next year.
[via Archinect]