WINNER OF A 2019 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Samuel Gendron Fortier, Université de Montréal
Advisor: Alessandra Ponte
Exploratory models
This project explores a future where accelerated transactions, enabled by blockchain technology, bring artificial intelligence (AI) into production spaces. Ricocheting between utopia and dystopia, the project?s building constantly transforms itself, optimizing between the balance of spaces dedicated to humans, robots and artificial intelligence.
The project site is the northern sector of Pointe-Saint-Charles in Montreal, an industrial brownfield. To begin, sections of abstract images taken from photos of microchips were superimposed on the site to form an initial plan. The building is a megastructure, like a machine or a giant computer. It can be used for various types of production: from manufacturing electronic devices, to growing food, to microbiological research,
or even for a creative industry such as music recording.
The megastructure includes thickened walls that house robotic systems, and human production areas between the walls.
Inside, a modular system of gigantic internal walls of different thicknesses moves on rails. Within these walls are spaces for servers, robotic production, storage and space support equipment. In these areas, robots store and manage both the produced goods and the materials needed to operate the plant. Between the programmatic bands are human production spaces, where workers use tools...