VEND-O-KIOSK 售货亭 | SHENZHEN BIENNALE OF URBANISM AND ARCHITECTURE

Ahead of the global COVID-19 Pandemic, our team explored on the capacity of contactless retail systems exploring how to challenge the future of the next economy. We explored how might new technological scenarios in the future of consumption affect the relationship between the human and urban terrains?

Goods are exchanged for other goods, labour is exchanged for resources, monetary payment is exchanged for proprietorship, and increasingly, our primary exchange relationships in today’s systems are defined by the exchange of personal data and behavioural information for access to services and community. Contemporary urban cities are the converging point of millions of interactions of exchange. As urban context, systems of value and relationships keep evolving, what will exchanges consist of in future economies?

This project questions how the adoption of new technologies will affect the spatial, social, and ethical repercussions of innovation driven by AI. Users will learn about the “manual” and the “automated” next to one other, allowing them to witness the machine operated “digital,” while still being able to “physically” interact with the objects of “labor.”

Vend-O-Kiosks was exhibited at the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen, China, as part of a “tri-city” proposal. The WE-DESIGNS team also designed and facilitated a series of programs and workshops to supplement the exhibitions in Shenzhen, China, along with a future exhibition in New York City. Connecting cities around the world, this project initiates a united, global conversation surrounding the future of the next economy.

ClientShenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and ArchitectureLocationShenzhen, ChinaYearDecember 2019 - April 2020StatusComplete