In the context of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB) 2022, the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), in collaboration with the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) and the Advanced Architecture Group (AAG), proposed and designed the installation Robotic Urban Farmers, which explores the integration of robots within our built environment to enable plants and food crops to be part of our city.
This year, IAAC Academic Director Areti Markopoulou and Lydia Kallipoliti, Assistant Professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union in New York, in collaboration with Chief Local Advisor Ivan Sergejev, are curating the 6th edition of the TAB under the title of “Edible. Or, the Architecture of Metabolism” that will be open to the public until November 20th, 2022.
In our current context of ecological crisis, global warming, biodiversity loss, human population growth and urban sprawl, we need to rethink the way we build and live in our city. We have observed the consequence of uncontrolled urban planning and construction driven only by a capitalist and productivist vision of the city, packing as many humans as possible in the cheapest constructions available, without consideration for the impact on our planet, on our fellow animals & plants inhabitants, and our own wellbeing.
The concrete jungles we have been building the past century have proven to be disrupting our climate (Global Warming, Local heat island effect), our ecosystems (loss of biodiversity, and recess of animals & plants population), and our economy (the food and product industry have been displaced far away, replaced by only service industry, and the generation of huge amount of waste in city).
Robotic Urban Farmers is a physical installation exploring the future of our habitat, where humans, plants and robots will cohabit symbiotically in cities. The project proposes a new facade system that integrates robotic agents and edible plants within our urban environment. A transversal data-driven protocol will grant a novel experience of spatial symbiosis among humans, edibles and environmental agencies, turning architectural components into an augmented ecological interface of urban intervention. The built installation becomes a manifesto of a new architectural organism enhancing a productive urban environment, generating fresh and local food, while improving the urban microclimate and local biodiversity.
Can we envision a future where new technologies help us to reintegrate nature in our city?
The proposed facade system is a modular aluminum structure that can integrated requirements
– for the robots: the horizontal and vertical elements are rails for the robot;
– for the plants: a flexible infrastructure that provides support, water and data connection;
– for the building: lightweight adaptive system that can provide where needed increased sun protection, thermal mass and/or insulation);
– for humans: including spaces for plant care and harvesting, but also balcony and terraces to enjoy this outdoor space.
In this envisioned system, robots have the possibility to move the plant from one location to another, and over countless operations such as reconfigure the facade along the day and seasons. Plants are moved to new locations according to their climatic needs (such as sun), brought to humans for care & harvest, and placed in special spaces for more specific treatments. The building can benefit from those movements, for e.g. increasing thermal protection in summer and bringing all the plants to the sunny facade. An application and AI system allow to mediate the various requirements of plants, insects, animals, humans and robots, toward a symbiotic city.
The built installation Robotic Urban Farmers at Tallinn Architecture Biennal 2022 pretends to be a manifesto of a new architectural organism enhancing a productive urban environment, generating fresh and local food, while improving the urban microclimate and local biodiversity.
See you in Tallinn to continue the discussion.
Credits
Robotic Urban Farmers is a project by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), in collaboration with the Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction (MRAC) from the Advanced Architecture Group (AAG). The project is exhibited and partially funded by the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2022 (TAB22).
Project lead: Cristian Rizzuti, Alexandre Dubor
Project contributors: Areti Markopoulou, Aldo Sollazzo, Shahar Abelson, Michael Dicarlo,
Francesco Polvi, Laukik Lad, Nareh Khaloian Darnaghi, Helena Homsi
Project Sponsors: LAMÁQUINA (3D Printing), Pure.Tech (Material Technology).
