“The best way to predict the future, is to invent it.”

For more than 30 years, the international innovation platform Living Tomorrow has been striving to do just that, beginning back in 1991 with its very first 'House of the Future' in the Belgian capital of Brussels. 

The amalgamation of 160 partners and an investment of €6m, the conceptual building in Vilvoorde, which has since been visited by 450,000 people, introduced the world to innovations such as home automation, barcode scanners, solar panels and web services. The architecture developed entirely in 3D, used innovative materials such as aerated concrete, laminate cladding and a cavity-free zinc roof. A quarter of a century on from that landmark piece of architecture – and with the climate emergency dominating the global agenda – Living Tomorrow is still working to provide answers to the following questions: what will the sustainable living spaces of the future look like? And how can innovation and collaboration today help write the story of tomorrow when it comes to the urban built environment?

Innovating smart living with ABB's integrated solutions

In the spirit of collaboration and innovation that is Living Tomorrow’s trademark, the new building features both KNX and BACnet building automation solutions – the  ABB i-bus® KNX and ABB HVAC Building Automation – working in harmony as part of a holistic technology solution. ABB i-bus® KNX- connects everything from lighting, shading and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) to security and energy management. All devices communicate with one another, utilizing the worldwide open standard protocol for the control of intelligent buildings.  

Highlights of the KNX system in Living Tomorrow’s Innovation Campus, include presence sensors and high-quality, user-friendly Tenton® sensors which enable room temperature, CO2/humidity and HVAC, shading and lighting to be controlled from a single device.  

ABB HVAC Building Automation is a flexible and scalable system that comprises energy management solutions aimed at system integrators, facility managers, and building owners. It provides an optimized environment in commercial and industrial infrastructure that is safe, smart and sustainable.  

ABB enables this ideal setup by offering open protocol portfolios comprising products that operate on international standardized protocols with well-mapped addresses. The advantage of having the protocol addresses publicly available is that anyone can easily integrate these products into comprehensive solutions for the end customer, without being limited to a single choice. This facilitates the convergence of multiple systems in a Building Management System (BMS), offering the end user a unified platform to manage, observe, and control their building.