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The story of the Ornithopter Machines and the Shipyard of Ij Hallen explores a political commentary of artificial intelligence (AI), water contamination, and the innovative technologies of the future to be harnessed by humanity in the year 2072.
The project speculates a world where the unseen discarded plastic in the depths of a canal is excavated as a valued raw material by ornithopter machines. With it, the architectural technology of the proposal becomes a hybrid of post-industrial airship docking station for drones and a recycling facility in the reformation of plastic. The proposal celebrates machines with a structural programme of steel reuse and automation, echoing the history of the shipyard.
Inspired by the lantern festival of Sint Maarten and the Dutch vernacular of suspended aerial architecture, the ornithopter machines are housed in dormancy within the structure of the docking station’s gantry, advertising a blossoming flea market of inflatable atria in the redistribution of recycled plastic, hinting at the potential relationship between man and machine while also questioning what the future of waste management might look like in a world of increasing AI prominence.
The future of artificial intelligence. Friend or Foe?
The epitome of high-tech industrial architecture questioning how the proposals of the future adopt AI, becoming autonomous moving devices that mimic speculative futurism of aerial architecture and future worlds of machines surpassing the human.
The industrial landscape of Ij Hallen promotes a construction strategy of reuse and scavenging of discarded materials in a timeline parallel with the scarcity of raw materials as a newly valued commodity.
An experimental approach of machinic inflatable anatomy with the unification of man and ornithopter machines collaborating in the operation of plastic reformation suggesting the role of machines in the environmental control of internal conditions.
The cultivation of ornithopter machines and prototypes exploring AI inspired plastic bin collection to symbolise the reverse engineering of water contamination.