Car manufacturer Toyota wants to build a Smart City model metropolis with the bold name “Woven City” on 200 hectares at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan.

The car manufacturer Toyota wants to build a Smart City model metropolis on 70 hectares at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. It is to have the lively name “Woven City”. None other than Bjarke Ingels has been commissioned to plan and develop the smart “Toyota City”. Construction is due to start at the beginning of this year.

Toyota Group CEO Akio Toyoda jokingly compared himself to the crazy factory owner Willy Wonka from the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” when he presented his automotive group’s plans at the CES technology trade fair in Las Vegas, USA, in January 2020. He wanted to build a “city of the future” at the foot of Mount Fuji, southwest of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and call it “Woven City”.

The disused Toyota plant there is to make way for a living laboratory for mobility, energy management, robotics and artificial intelligence. A total of 2,000 residents are to live there on around 70 hectares. The existing plans and image films propagate a smart city straight out of a picture book: three different types of roads in a grid-like network for autonomous electric cars, cyclists and pedestrians, houses in traditional Japanese timber construction, buildings with photovoltaic systems on the roofs, fuel cell production in an underground tunnel system, hydroponics of native vegetation, machines for the removal of waste.

It is an ambitious project, says someone who has already realized many ambitious projects in the course of his career. Bjarke Ingels, Danish star architect, is planning the realization of Toyota’s smart city dreams with his office BIG. A simple test track for the development of autonomous driving systems is no longer enough. Toyota is now building entire cities and is finally transforming itself from a pure car manufacturer into a mobility giant. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the key to this.

Without AI, the path to the all-encompassing networking of a city remains blocked. AI feeds on data, and it is precisely this dependence on data that could become a major international reservation about the “woven city” and come into conflict with the privacy of future residents. Visions like this are fundamentally at the mercy of the skepticism that they will lead to pure satellite cities. Toyota is building a capsule out of the ground that, under its glassy hood of promise, could tend above all to promote monopolies and breed retort societies. But that is also the purpose of a model city. To test what works – and what doesn’t.

Another ambitious project from BIG? The Plus, the world’s most environmentally friendly furniture factory.

“Accidents usually happen when a playground is barren,” said Franz Danner, playground expert at TÜV SÜD, in an interview last year. This cannot happen with Hally Gally play equipment: The new teepee, trampolines or climbing landscapes from Hally Gally play equipment mean that boredom is a thing of the past. Tipi & Trampoline Tipi is the new Hally Gally playground equipment. The typical […]

“Accidents usually happen when a playground is barren,” said Franz Danner, playground expert at TÜV SÜD, in an interview last year. This cannot happen with Hally Gally play equipment: The new teepee, trampolines or climbing landscapes from Hally Gally play equipment prevent boredom.

Tipi is the new Hally-Gally playground equipment. The typical use as a lounge, living and sleeping area is extended by climbing possibilities. This attraction is ideal for barbecues, campsites, youth hostels, etc.

A perfect place to play cowboys and Indians and to counteract the general sensory overload. At a height of 2.9 m, there is a horizontal net for resting, chilling out etc. With a total height of approx. 5 m and a diameter of 4.5 m, it makes an imposing appearance. On display at the Flensunger Hof in Mücke in the Vogelsberg district.

With the two trampolines Maximus VI and Maximus IX from Hally-Gally, every exercise course is given a new design option. As the Roman numerals suggest, the playground trampoline is available in lengths of six or nine meters. The Maximum IX (9 x 2.25 m) is an extra-wide piece of play equipment with plastic links built into the fall protection.
The trampolines are supplied in three-meter sections. Screwing together, attaching the mat and gluing on the fall protection panels is carried out on site. The mat can be unhooked from above for easy cleaning. According to the manufacturer, the trampolines are barrier-free and can be made even more accessible for wheelchair users on request thanks to the beveled fall protection slabs on the narrow side. Like the other Hally-Gally trampolines, Maximus VI and Maximus IX are also equipped with a bare frame and are therefore suitable for direct installation in poured fall protection surfaces. A Maximus trampoline of this type can also be found in front of the Adidas campus in Herzogenaurach in central Franconia. This is where the German national team moved into their European Championship headquarters for 2020 at the beginning of July. National coach Joachim Löw’s team will not be staying and training at the venue in Munich, but at the Adidas Campus.

The unusual playground equipment from Hally Gally Spielgeräte not only inspires children in Germany. The flexible playground equipment is particularly popular in Japan and New Zealand. The Hally Gally trampolines are particularly popular with children in Japan and the Wichtelwind is very popular in New Zealand – the rotating steel pole with a two-meter diameter play section conveys a sense of flying. A tensioned net made of robust Hercules rope gives the Wichtelwind the shape of a double spinning top.
Despite all the variety, safety is not neglected with the play equipment from SPOGG. The 60 pieces of equipment currently in the range are made of high-quality materials and are carefully manufactured in accordance with strict safety criteria for correct assembly. Accidents caused by boredom don’t stand a chance here.

Contact:
SPOGG Sport-Güter GmbH Hally-Gally
Schulstraße 27, 35614 Aßlar-Berghausen
Phone 06443-8112-62 Fax 06443-8112-69
spogg@hally-gally-spielplatzgeraete.de
www.hally-gally-spielplatzgeraete.de

Also interesting: The Hally-Gally dream catcher.