Living Tomorrow opens unique Innovation Campus and builds a sustainable future with more than 80 partners
Experience how we will live and work in the future with ‘digital twins and companions’.
Living Tomorrow’s brand new Innovation Campus opened its doors today. Together with more than 80 partners – leading companies, organisations, knowledge institutions and governments – Living Tomorrow forms an inspiring and vibrant ecosystem. The joint ambition is to act as a catalyst to substantially accelerate innovation. The common thread of the Innovation Campus will be ‘digital twins and companions’ – of ourselves, our car, our home, office, even entire cities. A tour through six experience zones allows us to experience what life will be like after 2030. In addition, the 14 storeys of the blue tower are home to a hotel, meeting and event centre, office space and an innovative chef’s table on the top floor.
Inspiring and bringing people together
Innovation is more at the forefront of the minds of companies and policymakers than ever before. After all, the Covid-19 pandemic, economic challenges and the current geopolitical landscape demonstrate that we must be able to respond quickly to change.
‘Predicting the future is not always easy’, explains Living Tomorrow CEO Yin Oei. ‘By making innovation tangible as Living Tomorrow, we are helping to make the impact understandable and, more importantly, engage proactively. In this way, we take on the role of ‘living lab’.’
‘We want to innovate together with our partners in a sustainable, smart and humane way. Only by working together do we create real impact and put innovations that contribute to a sustainable future on the map. In addition, we want to make all these innovations accessible to the general public. Everyone is welcome.’
Sustainability and circularity
With its 50-metre height spread over 14 storeys, the new Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus is an immediate example of how we will live more and more in the future. In the cities, we will build in height. ‘Only in this way can we create the necessary living and working space and leave room for green avenues, parks and cycling and walking areas’, explains Frank Beliën, founder and chairman of Living Tomorrow.
The Living Tomorrow partners have made substantial contributions when it comes to sustainability and circularity. ‘For example, we have incorporated facing bricks produced with CO2 and residual flows from the steel industry, we use recycled paints and recover “grey water”. This recovery of grey water also provides significant savings on top of that.’
But the innovation extends beyond the physical building. Thanks to smart systems, a ‘digital twin’ of the building has been created that, based on appropriate, real-time data, automatically monitors and manages the building in terms of usage and consumption.
Everything gets a digital twin
‘Digital twins’ of ourselves, our homes, our cars, our (office) buildings and even our cities and towns, are therefore immediately an important part of the future shown by Living Tomorrow. What can/does such a digital copy do? ‘The digital twin draws from data from a database linked to certain objects such as buildings, cities, cars and so on. Using AI, past and present data is used to make predictions. This enables you to conduct tests and analyses without using the physical object or environment. Based on these models, predictions can be made about the future’, explains Joachim De Vos, managing partner & co-chairman. ‘We see very interesting applications to increase efficiency from data and science, such as for yourself and your health. Based on wearables, sensors or implants, your body will be constantly monitored in real-time. This data will be kept in your digital twin so it can record specific health data. This way, for example, you can continuously monitor your blood values and you no longer need to have your blood drawn.’
Testing of intersection redesign before construction
Even entire cities will be digitally copied, Joachim goes on to explain. ‘These copies can be very interesting in terms of city or traffic planning, when reconstructing streets or neighbourhoods. Suppose you want to make an intersection safer. Rather than testing out all kinds of scenarios effectively, in a digital twin, you can immediately see the effect of certain changes. For example, is a conflict-free traffic light a solution? Or will this in turn create too much traffic congestion at peak times? Based on the data from the sensors and beacons in the infrastructure, the twins can indicate in real time how it is being used, by what type of road user and whether any emergencies can be detected.’
But we will not only have exact digital copies in the future, we will also have digital companions, Joachim De Vos predicts. ‘Digital companions will talk to us, to each other and to systems and will be able to consult with one another to relieve us of tasks like people. A companion will be able to coordinate with your doctor or pharmacist regarding more personalised medication. For example, for diabetes patients: instead of injecting the same dose of insulin every day and evaluating it after a few weeks, based on real-time monitoring of your insulin level, your digital twin will be able to regulate specific doses on a moment-by-moment basis.’
Boogie, or Living Tomorrow’s robot dog
Finally, Living Tomorrow has one last inspiring surprise. ‘You will be welcomed at our innovation campus by Boogie and his big sister, the robot dogs of the Innovation Campus’, Frank says. ‘Not only are they cute, they can also take on useful tasks from us such as keeping rooms and grounds clean, guard duties, monitoring and, as companion dogs, they also serve a social function. In our living lab, we will work with our partners to find new scalable use cases.’
Additional photo material via this link.
About Living Tomorrow
Ever since its inception in 1990, the Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus in Vilvoorde (Brussels) has been one of Europe’s leading innovation hubs.
Here people and organisations can inform themselves and prepare for the future.
The new Innovation Campus heralds the start of a new chapter in which Living Tomorrow will assume its role as a catalyst for innovation and collaboration to an even greater extent. Our future vision was developed together with the Living Tomorrow ecosystem that comprises over 80 partners at home and abroad.
In the digital experience centre you can discover how we will live and work in the future.
Our goal is clear: make a significant contribution to the creation of a better world through innovation. A world that is more sustainable, safe, smart, humane and convenient.
The Innovation Campus also includes Belgium’s very first voco ™ hotel, with more than 90 rooms, 8 conference rooms and several culinary facilities. In addition there’s the independent knowledge centre of the Living Tomorrow group, TomorrowLab. Consisting of a team of highly motivated innovation and strategy consultants, it prepares businesses and organisations for the future.