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Coming to Life

The boldest districts in the pipeline right now — where creativity beats sheer scale. These neighbourhoods are moving from render to reality between 2025 and 2027, wiring together circular building, new energy, hidden logistics and living-lab data into single integrated ecosystems.

✔ Every published entry is editor-reviewed against its sources.

🚲 Mobility

🇯🇵 Susono

Toyota Woven City

Toyota launched Woven City's demonstration phase on 25 September 2025 at its former Higashi-Fuji plant in Susono. The first 'Weaver' residents — Toyota employees and their families — began moving in toward a Phase 1 target of about 360, testing hydrogen fuel cells, in-home robotics and autonomous mobility. General visitors are expected from FY2026.

Live 📅 since 2021 🤖 Uses AI ✔ Editor-reviewed

⚡ Energy

🇯🇵 Tokyo

HARUMI FLAG Hydrogen Town

On the former Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay, an underground pipeline feeds pure-hydrogen PEFC (PEM) fuel cells in each residential block — Japan's first full-scale hydrogen infrastructure in a housing district. The cells power common areas and shared facilities across 5,632 homes (~12,000 residents), run by an energy-management system that predicts peak demand.

Live 📅 since 2024 ✔ Editor-reviewed

🚲 Mobility

🇨🇳 Shenzhen

Tencent Net City

Tencent's car-free "city of the future" on reclaimed land at Dachan Bay — officially the "Internet+" Future Tech City, nicknamed Penguin Island. Roughly Midtown-Manhattan-sized, it weaves offices, homes, schools and parks together for pedestrians, bikes and autonomous transport. Construction began in 2021; first zones opened in late 2025, with full build-out due around 2026.

In build 📅 since 2021 ✔ Editor-reviewed

🌱 Environment

🇳🇱 Helmond

Brainport Smart District

A 155-hectare living lab in Helmond's Brandevoort, planned for 1,500 homes over a decade that would share their own energy, local food, water and data on a flexible grid built to grow with residents rather than be finished at once. So far about 52 circular modular homes stand; a 2023 reset trimmed the tech ambitions toward affordable housing.

In build 📅 since 2022 ✔ Editor-reviewed

🚲 Mobility

🇩🇪 Berlin

U-Space Berlin Last-Mile Lab

A Berlin "Reallabor" testing drone delivery of light goods — medical samples and food — around the Ullsteinhaus and an industrial area in Tempelhof-Schöneberg. Selected in 2025, it is one of a roughly €9M trio of three-year real-world labs, alongside circular-construction lab B(e)Ware and wastewater-heat lab IWIQ.

In build 📅 since 2025 ✔ Editor-reviewed

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