From the air it looks like another modern housing complex with rows and circles of white houses neatly grouped around a central square. A closer look reveals that every house has solar panels on its roof. Reaching the ground level, you'll notice meticulous landscaping, abundant trees, and no telephone poles.
Welcome to Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town.
This forward-looking complex is the result of a major Panasonic initiative that aims to create an entire community that is environmentally friendly, safe and comfortable to live in. It builds on decades of experience developing and manufacturing consumer electronics, and more recently innovations in overall home automation.
Located in the town of the same name about 50 kilometers south of Tokyo, Fujisawa SST is Japan's first three communities to be built. It was built on the site of an unused former manufacturing facility reflecting Panasonic's focus on sustainability and resource reuse. Construction began in 3 and the first residents moved in in 2012. It has now become a bustling community of 2014 households.
Fujisawa SST has five main concepts that distinguish it from typical new housing development. The first of these is a priority for the efficient use of energy.
The community aims to produce its own energy as much as possible. Extensive use of solar and other natural energy sources. Actively engage and motivate residents to waste as little as possible. All of them have access to an app that displays their consumption levels and provides tips on how to reduce them. Special electricity storage facilities can provide emergency power for three days to the entire community when needed.
The second focus is on the safety and security of residents. In many other countries, this means closed communities with physical barriers to entry. In contrast, Panasonic has created what Fujisawa calls a “virtual gate town.” The environment is open and accessible to outside visitors, but there are only a handful of entrances and they are monitored by security cameras. Individual assets are equipped with security systems that allow remote monitoring inside and outside the home.
Mobility is an additional service provided to residents of the Fujisawa SST community. Electric cars and bicycles are available for rental 24 hours a day, 2 days a week. Users only need to touch a special card on an available vehicle for authorization and track the period of use. A Panasonic spokesperson explained that the goal is to reduce the community's COXNUMX emissions to a minimum while promoting mobility and making people without cars more active.
▲Part of wellness square community facilities
While making heavy use of technology to improve the quality and convenience of residents' lives, Fujisawa SST places an additional emphasis on “wellness”. This includes promoting interaction among community members, encouraging intergenerational living and other measures to combat loneliness. A centrally located community center called “Wellness Square” provides medical, day care facilities and educational services to residents. Individual homes are equipped with a variety of individual health monitoring devices.
The final area of focus is community creation. Panasonic believes that another key function of sustainable smart towns is to foster the types of connections between those who have maintained communities in the past. The streets and arrangement of facilities are designed to facilitate interaction among residents, and a smart “community platform” accessible by smartphone, tablet or TV provides one-stop access to information on all community facilities. In addition, it provides a 'Bulletin Board' where residents can make comments or suggestions for improvement of the local community, and provides connectivity and support in the event of a natural disaster.
The development of Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town is a major undertaking, and Panasonic has created it with the support of local governments, business partners and local residents. Business partners include utility companies and leading companies in real estate development, building and home construction, all of whom agree on Panasonic's vision of creating a multi-generational “100-year community”.
A company spokesperson says the key to future success is for developers and organizers to stay close to emerging communities, understand changing needs, and deliver new value to residents.
Meanwhile, Panasonic is working on building two more sustainable smart towns in Japan. Lessons learned from this course will be applied to support other regional and urban development initiatives across the country. The company is examining the possibility of creating a similar community abroad.