Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
Media x Design Lab
Masters of Architecture Studio
Fall 2018, Spring 2019
Whether we like it or not, the near future will be defined by automation, artificial intelligence, smart infrastructure and urban intensification. This rapidly approaching reality begs several questions: How will we co-exist with machines? How will we perceive and relate to destinations with unpopulated architecture? In the absence of universal access to technology, how will we promote diversity in thinking, living and working without succumbing to the creation of smart societal enclaves?
This fourth industrial revolution promises to change the way the economy produces goods (manufacturing) as well as how goods are procured and delivered to consumers (urban logistics, click-and-collect).
Paradoxically, the new technologies, which promise to replace the human worker, desire proximity to their human customers- to rapidly deliver more highly customized commodities (the last mile problem). This desire for proximity is leading to the development of mass customization and on-demand manufacturing which is cleaner and less impactful environmentally. Can the integration of these technologies in the city provide an impetus for their humanization?
