An Urban Incubator: Toyota Woven City by BIG

At the foot of Mount Fuji, BIG and the Toyota Motor Corporation are planning the world’s first urban incubator in the form of the Toyota Woven City. The image of a living laboratory will enable us to redesign the digital and sustainable infrastructure of the future from the ground up, says Akio Toyoda, CEO of the Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Toyota Woven City will be created on the 175-acre grounds of an old factory in the city of Susono in Shizuoka Prefecture. Clean, interconnected mobility solutions will promise “new equality among vehicles, alternative forms of movement, people and nature”. In order to ensure a carbon-neutral community, BIG will focus on solar and geothermic energy sources as well as hydrogen-based fuel-cell technologies.

The urban-planning pattern of porous 3x3 blocks will give rise to myriad social and cultural economies. In a time when traditional physical meeting places are increasingly superseded, the concept of a “woven city” will make it possible to reinforce human bonds in public spaces, explains Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director at BIG. Construction is slated to begin in 2021.