Winy Maas in the final reviews of the Robotic City Workshop
From April 25th to 29th, Master in City & Technology (MaCT) students joined the Robotic City Workshop, ran by The Why Factory (T?F) and in collaboration with students from TU Delft, which took place at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.
The Why Factory (T?F) is a global think-tank and research institute, run by MVRDV and Delft University of Technology and led by professor Winy Maas. It explores possibilities for the development of our cities by focusing on the production of models and visualizations for cities of the future.
Winy Maas in the final reviews of the Robotic City Workshop
During the five days of workshop, MaCT students and 19 students from TU Delft worked together on the Robotic City and developed a collective Library of Robotic Speculations. This tool helped them to imagine future technologies and how they could change our planet and the way we inhabit our cities.
During the first phase of the workshop students dove deep into the robotic world: they mapped the evolution and advances of robotic technologies and the place the take in our cities. Following the outcomes of the first exercise, students identified the main sectors of robotic applications and they analyzed the potentials implications of these technologies and their impacts on the city. They developed an extended Catalog of current and future Applications to visualize the influence of robotics in existing typologies.
How do robots redefine the spatial organization, the dimensions and the capacity of a parking lot? Of a theatre? Of a street? What are the impacts of robots on mobility, building forms, leisure, public space and energy consumption?
MaCT and The Why Factory students working at their visions for the Robotic City
The final part of the workshop was dedicated to the development of future Scenarios, from utopian to dystopian, from near to far future, in order to explore the potentials and spatial implications of the robotic city. Students produced a series of design visions, 30 speculations about the future robotic cities:
- (Non)Stop City – A city where infrastructure and programs always keep moving according to real-time needs of different users.
- Perfect Weather City – Where the weather is fully controlled by humans using nanorobots.
- Ego Mobility City – What if people can go directly wherever they want to go without caring about others?
- Adaptive Fabric City – What if all the surfaces can transform according to human body movement?
- Bio Robotic Skin City – Where the skin of the buildings act as a shield to protect the interior from pollution.
- Maximum Energy City – The surfaces of natural and built environment are conceived to collect and redistribute green energy.
- Etc.
Visions for the Robotic City – The Library of Speculations
The Master in City & Technology focusses on the needs for the habitability of the 21st century cities and the significant role of technology for the formation of the new urban environments. IAAC proposes this new Master program oriented in training Change Makers that City Government Administrations, the Industry and Communities need in order to develop projects for the transformation of the cities.
Learn more about the Master in City & Technology by clicking here.
