Automated Landscapes: Architectures of Work without Workers

  • The APM Terminals automated operations in Maasvlakte II, Rotterdam. Image Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
  • Design Trust Grant Recipient Het Nieuwe Instituut presenting their project "Automated Landscapes in the Pearl River Delta Region".
  • Design Trust Grant Recipient Het Nieuwe Instituut presenting their project "Automated Landscapes in the Pearl River Delta Region".

Automated Landscapes: Architectures of Work without Workers is a research project that documented the emerging architectures and landscapes of fully-automated, non-human work. Following on research about automation in Rotterdam, the project looked to the Greater Bay Area to shed light on the impact of automation in other geographies and scales, compared the spaces of automation in both regions, and opened conversations on the transition from the man-powered “factory of the world” to a territory of automated production.

Automated Landscapes: Architectures of Work without Workers is a research project that documented the emerging architectures and landscapes of fully-automated, non-human work. Following on research about automation in Rotterdam, the project looked to the Greater Bay Area to shed light on the impact of automation in other geographies and scales, compared the spaces of automation in both regions, and opened conversations on the transition from the man-powered “factory of the world” to a territory of automated production.

Milestones

2017.Q1
Project awarded Design Trust Feature Grant

2017.12-2018.03
“Automated Landscapes” installation is presented as part of the core program of Urbanism and Architecture Bi-city Biennale (UABB) 2017

2017.06-09
The installation is presented at the “How Will We Work?” exhibition atthe University of Applied Arts Vienna, in cooperation with the Vienna Biennale 2017

2018.03
The project and a film is presented at Cocktail Dialogue: “Architectures of Work without Workers” hosted by Design Trust

2018.08
An article about the findings of the project is published on The Site Magazine vol.39, contributed by Het Nieuwe Instituut

2018.05-11
With the research of the awarded project, Marina Otero Verzier acted as curator of the 2018 Dutch Pavilion as a part of Venice International Architecture Biennale 2018

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2017
Grantee: Marina Otero Verzier
Organisation: Research & Development department, Het Nieuwe Instituut

Since its founding in 2013, Het Nieuwe Instituut has fostered research initiatives in the form of exhibitions, events, archival investigations and publications by a variety of practitioners, independent researchers, academics and curators. Its Research and Development department (R&D) acknowledges and gives visibility to research projects and initiatives that develop engaged, self-aware and critical arguments about alternative modes of living and experimenting in the cultural field. Grounded in the principles of design and innovation, concepts bound up with optimism as well as change and inherent conflicts, the investigations, exhibitions, and public events aim to serve as a motor for collective forms of creativity and responsibility, and to offer departures from established modes of thinking. 

Project Result: WORK BODY LEISURE, the Dutch Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2018

Date: 25 May 2018 – 10 March 2019

Venue: 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Het Nieuwe Instituut

Automated Landscapes was presented as part of WORK BODY LEISURE, the Dutch Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2018, under the title #OFFICE, a contribution by Marten Kuijpers and Victor Muñoz Sanz.

Replica of Container Terminal Remote Operator’s Workspace in #OFFICE, WORK, BODY, LEISURE at Biennale Architettura 2018. Photo: Daria Scagliola

Replica of Container Terminal Remote Operator’s Workspace in #OFFICE, WORK, BODY, LEISURE at Biennale Architettura 2018. Photo: Daria Scagliola