The Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus in Vilvoorde, Brussels, is one of Europe’s leading innovation centers. Along with a vast network of partners, they create ideas and visions that make living in the future more comfortable and enjoyable. A massive blue tower reaching 50 meters into the sky literally lifts you over the Brussels skyline and provides a unique view of the future.
We live in an age of science and technology evolving at rocket speed. At the Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus, it demonstrates that we can do more than sit back and go with the flow. Remember Alan Kay: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Living Tomorrow’s exciting journey started in 1990 as ‘House of the Future.’ Over the past 35 years, Living Tomorrow has explored the realms of the future. It’s all about creating a unique innovation ecosystem by uniting partners across sectors. Together, they can experiment with their long-term visions and showcase those to the broader public in the Digital Experience Center.
“In a world that constantly challenges us and where uncertainty knocks on our doors, we must be able to rise above it all,” asserts Frank Beliën, Founder and Chairman of Living Tomorrow. “It is during these moments that the power of an ecosystem is invaluable: the power to create, innovate, and transform. That’s what we do at Living Tomorrow. Together and daily, we are making a difference for our future.”
Inspiring and Bringing People Together
Innovation is more prominently discussed among companies and policymakers than ever before. 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 a ‘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.”
A Lever for Sustainable Innovation
With its 50-meter height spread over 12 stories, the new Living Tomorrow Innovation Campus is an immediate example of how we will live 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,” shares Frank Beliën.
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 we recover ‘grey water.’ This recovery of grey water also provides significant savings on top of that.”
However, the innovation extends beyond the physical building. Thanks to smart systems, a ‘digital twin’ of the building has been created that automatically monitors and manages the building’s usage and consumption based on appropriate, real-time data.
The Human Factor – And Its Digital Twin
While strongly emphasizing technology, AI, and data, Living Tomorrow recognizes the importance of maintaining a balance between technological advances and human-centered values. Marijke Verhavert, director of TomorrowLab, the independent research and consultancy company of the Living Tomorrow Group, says: “One of the most important things to watch over is that technology and data serve the human goal. We understand that people today can feel overwhelmed by its rapid development, but together with our partners, we are very careful that it is used to create a more human world, not a robotic one. On the contrary, rather than replace humans, data can be a valuable tool to relieve individuals from repetitive or administrative tasks, enhancing them as human beings and enabling people to focus more on their core talents. Making the future tangible helps people understand and create better human-centered solutions.”
Yin Oei states: “Just look at the healthcare sector, where the implementation of a ‘digital twin’ can significantly contribute to time management and enhance personal care. These digital twins can simulate various aspects of patient data, processes, or medical scenarios, providing healthcare providers with valuable insights and decision-making support. Technology cannot be an empty box for its own sake. By actively engaging communities and seeking their input and feedback, we aim to create sustainable communities. Together, we can create a smarter, healthier, more convenient, sustainable, and safer future. And above all: more human.”
Innovation as a Service
Businesses worldwide struggle to prepare for a sustainable future, especially when all well-known paradigms seem to shift. There is much uncertainty and little confidence, but most commonly, there is little practice in cross-company cooperation. That is where TomorrowLab comes in. Building bridges and guiding with domain expertise, consultants show the way forward. TomorrowLab is a consultancy firm that helps businesses develop future-proof strategies and practical roadmaps for innovation, business transformation, digital transformation, and sustainability. As a neutral sparring partner and soundboard, TomorrowLab works for a wide range of customers in many sectors, from governments to start-ups, from non-profit organizations to large multinationals.
Recently, they have launched an exciting new concept: the Living Tomorrow Academy. This open learning hub is designed for companies and individuals aiming to develop skills to be fit for the future, positioning Living Tomorrow as the ultimate one-stop shop for forward-thinking innovation and strategy.
“We are engaging and supporting companies in shaping the future and preparing them to thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape,” says Yin Oei.
Why Innovation Fails
Why do businesses and organizations succeed so rarely in being truly innovative? Why is that a problem? And what solutions are there? Joachim De Vos, Managing Partner of the Living Tomorrow Group, explains in his book ‘Why Innovation Fails – The 7 Keys to Success.’ He explains in great detail where the bottlenecks are and provides the keys to change course.
For over 25 years, he has shared these experiences with business leaders, policymakers, and innovation teams worldwide, helping them develop what he calls ‘future fitness.’ Why? “Because we are not experiencing an era of change, but a change of era,” Joachim De Vos says. “In these times of uncertainty, you need a dynamic vision of the future, or your company won’t survive.”
Although the keys are at hand, Joachim De Vos notices that business leaders often still hesitate to actually use them: “Especially because it requires belief in the future as well as investment. Money that they would rather invest in the current business, which they know and where there are fewer uncertainties. Meanwhile, I have learned that the greatest return is in the future. I hope that more and more companies will start to realize this.”
With more than 80 partners at Living Tomorrow, they decided not to be overwhelmed by insecurity but to look for a way to shine in this wavering world. Their secret? A unique ecosystem of innovative stakeholders that is continuously pioneering to stay ahead. They don’t wait for the future. They take it by the hand. And so could you.
