Living Tomorrow
Living Tomorrow is an internationally operating research organization that realizes projects around living, working and living in the future. Their innovation campus is located in Brussels.
About Living Tomorrow
Since 1995, Living Tomorrow has been realising projects that reflect a vision of the future. The organization started as 'the house of the Future' but is nowadays engaged in projects about the future of mobility, healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings and smart cities. It acts as a future-oriented research institution and as a marketing and co-creation platform for companies, governments and organizations. It also serves as a source of inspiration for visitors.
Innovations
Living Tomorrow demonstrates various innovations and innovative products. In this way, visitors and participants get the chance to discover the future, to give feedback or even to work together in an innovative ecosystem. Furthermore, the innovation campus can help bring these innovations and products to the market more efficiently and successfully. In the meantime, hundreds of successful market products and services have already emerged that were the first to be tested and shown in Living Tomorrow.
Examples:
· The first home automation systems (Teletask & Philips - 1995)
· Google Earth look-a-like travel applications (Thomas Cook & Sunjets - 1996)
· Barcode readers to order your groceries (Carrefour & Zetes - 1996)
· Recycling of PMD/residual waste (Fost Plus -1997)
· Smart doorbells (Siedle - 1997)
· Electrochromic blackout windows (Saint-Roch - 1997)
· The smart mailbox for e-commerce and pack stations (DHL - 2001)
· The first banking app (ING, 2003)
· Self-checkout in the supermarket (Delhaize - 2007)
· Smart energy meters (Eandis & Engie - 2010)
· The ambulance drone (TUDelft - 2012)
· Solar charging for EVs (ABB - 2013)
· AI Digital Twin for Health Checkup (Medtronic - 2020)
· Storing CO2 in concrete (Holcim Lafarge – 2022)
· Holographic interactive building model in 4D BIM (Schüco – 2022)
Through the ecosystem of many companies and governments to develop, test and realize new products and through the collaboration with visitors on the basis of hackathons, Living Tomorrow has grown into an internationally known innovation campus, which is currently still being expanded.
Origins and history
Early years
Living Tomorrow started in 1995 as the House of the Future under the impulse of Frank Beliën and Joachim De Vos. Their vision was to translate the social and technological trends into concrete applications: "How does technology change our lives? How will we live and work tomorrow?"
The project was officially opened by, among others, Bill Gates, then CEO of Microsoft and Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene. The founders promised to realize a new complex every 5 years, which is actually happening until today.
House of the Future (1995-2000)
The first House of the Future was built in Vilvoorde, next to the Ring of Brussels exit 6. It had 163 participating organizations, costed 6 million euros and received 300,000 visitors during its term. It introduced the world to home automation, barcode scanners, solar panels, world-wide web services, Belgium's first website, 100MB LAN, the first ISDN videoconferencing, ADSL, the mobile phone and the laptop. The architecture was also progressive by using innovative materials such as aerated concrete, laminate façade cladding and a zinc roof without cavity. The architecture was developed entirely in 3D by Androme (Hasselt University).
Living Tomorrow II (2000-2005)
In 2000, in addition to the first building, a new and larger complex was built, Living Tomorrow 2. It included a new House of the Future and an Office of the Future. More than 97 companies participated, the budget rose to 10 million euros and the number of visitors rose to 550,000. Numerous innovations were presented for the first time: interactive TV, IP telephony, voice recognition, delivery box and the electric car.
Living Tomorrow Amsterdam (2004-2009)
In 2004 Living Tomorrow opened a building in Amsterdam. The project was built with the help of the Dutch government and 40 larger companies. The budget was 17 million euros and received 750,000 visitors.
The revolutionary 'blup' architecture used, in collaboration with UNStudios and Ben van Berkel, set a new building trend in motion and is still an eye-catcher today. Currently, the building is used by a Dutch bank.
Living Tomorrow III (2007-2012)
At the same location of the previous building in Vilvoorde, a new project was realized. More than 120 building innovations were used (mainly with plastic materials). You can still see this in the typical blue shell at the front of the building. The big eye-catcher was the kitchen of the future, drawn by Zaha Hadid, entitled the Z-Island. This technological tour de force was exhibited shortly before the opening at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then, the futuristic furniture can be admired in Living Tomorrow. The budget of the project increased to 14.5 million euros, had 70 participants and 500,000 visitors.
Living Tomorrow IV (2012-2017)
Living Tomorrow 4 consisted of 2 subprojects. The first part included the further expansion of the existing Living Tomorrow 3 building with new demonstrations on smart cities and electric mobility. As well as the energy landscape, the store and healthcare of the future. These demonstrations were visualisations of the future research of sister organisation Tomorrowlab, a consultancy firm on strategy and innovation. They were carried out in close cooperation with companies such as Colruyt Groep, ABB, De Lijn, Randstad and bpost.
A second part included the realization of a 'living lab' in Heusden-Zolder: the Care Home of the Future. The project ran between 2013 and 2016 and included an innovative assisted living home, an innovative care room and a pharmacy of the future. In addition, technologies and services were integrated into a residential care home that could accommodate 200 seniors. That project also introduced many innovations: remote diagnosis via an intelligent mirror, a 24/7 pharmacy robot, polypill, and a synthetic floor in the bathroom. The project had a budget of 12 million euros and received 90 participants and provided awareness raising, research and development.
New projects
Since 2019, Living Tomorrow has been preparing a new campus that will give a vision on living and working in 2030. The project will be a combination of a living lab for co-creation of new ideas, a demonstration zone around 5 major themes, an event center and a restaurant.
The aim of this edition is more than ever to give companies, cities and people the opportunity to prepare themselves as much as possible for the future and to actively participate in it. Organizations from all over the world use the Living Tomorrow campus to demonstrate their innovations and collaborate on the future through partnerships and customer feedback. Local companies will receive an international showcase to visualize their knowledge and skills to millions of international visitors. The construction site can be visited from the end of 2020. The innovation campus will open in 2023.
5 key themes
Living Tomorrow and its partners are joining forces around five themes: smart homes & services, smart mobility & logistics, smart health, smart buildings & infrastructure and smart cities & industry 4.0. Themes with a major social impact, with which citizens, organizations, cities and municipalities as well as companies come into contact. For example, it will be investigated what role AI can play in healthcare, but also how we will build smarter in the future with attention to sustainability.
Partners
To give shape to the new Living Tomorrow, 100 organisations will be admitted to this edition of the project. Each expert in their field. Currently, about three quarters of the places have already been taken by, among others: Mercedes-Benz, Miele, BDO, Fluvius, Baloise, Schüco and ABB.
Iconic building
Living Tomorrow will be in a brand-new building with a 50m high tower that will be very visionary in terms of both architecture and technology. It will be on the current site of Living Tomorrow and will give the skyline of the Brussels Ring a future-oriented view. In addition to the innovation demo zones, the new building includes a conference center and a hotel. The new building will be completely energy neutral and will focus on a hybrid hospitality experience.
Meeting & Event Center and Restaurant
Living Tomorrow also has an extensive meeting center. With 10 meeting rooms, including an auditorium, lounge and VIP board room. Living Tomorrow even has a culinary restaurant on their site, The Bistronomy. Led by star chef Marc Clement, his team conjures up affordable gastronomy with fresh, quirky creations. Each time with a nod to the future.