The emerging idea of the ‘innovation district’ does away with secluded manufacturing areas of a city and folds factories into the rest of the cityscape.
With companies benefitting from being in closer proximity to housing, transit, universities, and other general amenities, Fremont has plans to add a high-density residential neighborhood to the innovation district. Fremont is also attached to the southern end of two Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) routes.
Fremont has welcomed companies like Tesla who embrace advanced manufacturing processes. At the core of these new processes is the “Internet of Things” or IOT. A very imaginative phrase, it describes all those things in our world now that are able to connect to a network and provide data and feedback.
This integration of hardware and software not only leads to improvements on costs and quality but fosters more competition overall.
For innovation districts to flourish, they need support from local government, education and research bodies, and corporate investors. Fremont, alongside Sheffield, UK, is being watched as a test city that establishes best practices for other cities to follow into the future.
Further reading on Fremont and its innovation district can be found here.
Image Credit: Flickr User sathishcj, https://flic.kr/p/56woFo via (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)