Willow Glen Resident
Community
Photograph courtesy of Living Tomorrow
Modern Home: Modern bedroom furniture is among the items that the new Home of Tomorrow, slated to open in San Jose in 2009, will showcase in its consumer-testing area. The museum will be the first of its kind to open in the United States.
San Jose residents first in nation slated to test-market new products
By Lydia Sarraille
San Jose residents will be the first in the United States to test new technology from various companies around the world before products hit the market when the 40,000-square-foot Home of Tomorrow museum opens downtown in 2009.
The $53 million testing facility is the first of its kind planned to open in the nation.
The city of San Jose and Coca-Cola have stepped up as the first two groups to officially sponsor the project, which organizers plan to fund almost solely through partnerships with participating companies.
Living Tomorrow, a Belgium-based research company, plans to break ground in 2008 on the new San Jose museum that will span San Fernando Street between First and Second streets. The San Jose Redevelopment Agency has already approved the project.
Peter Bongers, founder and CEO of Living Tomorrow, said he chose San Jose as the museum site because of the area's high-tech reputation.
"San Jose is the capital of Silicon Valley, and Silicon Valley is the world capital of innovation," Bongers said.
The project will showcase new or experimental technology in real-life settings, Bongers said.
"The purpose of this project is to display a realistic vision of the home, office, business or hospital of the future."
Home of Tomorrow will allow visitors to take guided tours of rooms set up as the interiors of a futuristic home, office, store or hospital equipped with products designed by participating high-tech companies.
Bongers said the San Jose museum will be much like those already built in Amsterdam and Belgium, which have displayed "smart" kitchens that inform occupants when they are out of milk or bread, as well as examples of sustainable energy options, hybrid vehicles and LED lighting among other technologies.
The displays in Living Tomorrow museums are updated regularly to account for the inevitable passage of "tomorrow" to "today," Bongers said.
The museum will allow consumers to rate via a handheld device each piece of technology displayed. This provides valuable insight to the participating companies, said Tim Bagarin, president of Creative Strategies Bagarin.
For more information on Living Tomorrow San Jose, visit www.livtom.dotnet 35.hostbasket.com.
