Future Prospects of Woven City: Partnership in Climate Control, Retail Services, Nutrition, Café, and Learning Instruction
In the heart of Toyota, Japan, a new city is taking shape, known as Woven City. This futuristic urban landscape, dubbed the city's "Inventors," is a testbed for groundbreaking technologies that aim to "build the future fabric of life." One of the five companies announced as an Inventor is Daikin, a renowned air conditioning manufacturer.
Daikin is expected to explore energy-efficient solutions, such as advanced air conditioning systems, as part of Woven City's focus on sustainability and smart infrastructure. The specific experiments by Daikin at Woven City aren't detailed, but the company will be testing "personalized functional spaces" tailored to various lifestyle situations.
One such experiment involves the creation of pollen-less spaces, designed to keep out pollen and improve residents' comfort and well-being. Shota Hori and Uho Oh, members of the genba team, are leading this project. Hori oversees the overall implementation, while Oh focuses on equipment design and data analysis.
Oh joined the project right after graduating from the Daikin Information and Communications Technology College and sees Woven City as an opportunity to bring happiness and well-being to many people. The trials in Woven City will focus on minimising pollen infiltration by improving ventilation filters and air pressure control.
Woven City also serves as a testbed for cutting-edge technologies, including smart mobility, digital infrastructure, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. These technologies aim to create a more sustainable, safer, and efficient city, ultimately improving the quality of life for its residents.
The city's smart mobility system includes autonomous vehicles and intelligent transport systems that improve efficiency and safety. The digital infrastructure includes sensors and monitoring systems to generate data and enhance urban services. Sustainability efforts focus on renewable energy, such as solar panels and hydrogen cells, to reduce carbon emissions. Artificial intelligence is integrated to optimise infrastructure and urban services.
The unique conditions provided by Woven City allow for extended testing of these technologies, tied to residents' lifestyles. Hori and Oh seek advice from people in the field and other departments at Daikin to gain expertise in areas including equipment design and communication systems.
Woven City will host trials by companies from various industries, including startups and university research groups. The current system is not capable of completely shutting out all pollen, but improvements are expected through feedback from residents and notifications of current pollen conditions.
The trials in Woven City are set to begin in the fall of 2025, following Toyota's announcement at CES 2025. The potential benefits of these innovations include a more sustainable environment, safer mobility, efficient infrastructure, economic innovation, and improved quality of life for residents. Woven City serves as a model for future cities, offering a comprehensive approach to urban challenges, with a focus on sustainability, intelligent mobility, and continuous quality of life improvement.
- Daikin, part of the Inventors in Woven City, is planning to delve into the development of personalized functional spaces that cater to different lifestyle situations, with a specific focus on creating pollen-less spaces to enhance residents' health-and-wellness and fitness-and-exercise.
- The experiments conducted by Daikin in Woven City involve the integration of technology, as they will test and optimize ventilation filters and air pressure control to minimize pollen infiltration, thereby improving the overall science behind air conditioning systems and contributing to a healthier and more comfortable living environment.
