Urban Pixel

What kind of city and what kind of social ties do we want for tomorrow? Faced with the rise of robotics and technology, we are experiencing a real “urban robolution”. Robots assist us on a daily basis, intervening even in the most private areas of our lives. In this context, what happens to human interaction? How are social connections created in the city?

Urban Pixel is a proposal for urban street furniture. Modular urban pixels are projected onto large public esplanades. Each pixel has a specific function. In addition to bringing conviviality to the heart of the city, Urban Pixel gets people talking about the use of robotics applied to the global urban environment.

"Weina proposes a poetic and scenographic ballet generated by a set of "pixel" robots. They make the urban space vibrate by moving around and combining with one another according to the needs of the city’s users. This prospective project questions our relationship to the robotic city. While the collective imagination reflects a technocratic vision of optimizing the management of cities, Weina takes a different approach. The essential functions of a welcoming city are provided: seating, lighting, information and greenery, in a cumulative and targeted logic. Supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts, Weina has been able to grasp the stakes of the smart city and the need for a social and human approach. She has also tried out her designs on inhabitants to adjust her vision. Weina initiates a new form of dialogue between the robot and the inhabitant, for the benefit of greater urban socialization. Her work builds on the urban service design initiated by TENCENT in Beijing. And what about you ? How do you see the robotic city?" Anais Jacquard - City Design Lab Course Leader