The Robotic City
From Smart Cities to Biotechnologies: the Library of Speculations
Seminar Faculty: Winy Maas & Adrien Ravon – The Why Factory

In this seminar we develop the Library of Robotic Speculations, imagining the future technologies and how those could change the planet and the way we inhabit our cities.
In addition to the seminar, a five days’ workshop in collaboration with the TU Delft will bring students from TU Delft and IAAC to work together in Barcelona to enrich the Library of Robotic Speculations.

From smart cities to biotechnologies, how to map the evolution and advances of robotic technologies? How to get an overview of the current and future technological innovations? What is the state of the art of robotics? What are the gaps? Drones, 3d printers, smart materials, humanoids, biotechnologies… What are the implications of robotisation on the build environment?

In the best tradition of science fiction, we speculate and develop future scenarios – from utopian to dystopian. We produce future visions exploring what are the pluses and minuses of the robotic city. How does that change the way we work, build and live our cities? What are the danger of it? What are the potentials? Why is it so fascinating and sometimes so scary?

This library of future scenarios will be developed leading to visionary, city-related designs. We test those scenarios on existing situations. How do they change the form of a street, of an urban block, a neighborhood or a house..?

During the seminar, some technical support will be provided to enhance the production of a collective imagery.