Program

Conferences

acar2: WerkNetz - Sustainable Design of a Cultivated Equilibrium

Symposium

07.09. | 14:00 - 23:59

afo architekturforum oberösterreich

Revitalization Project
Finding new uses for deserted train stations as a decentralized platform for the design of post-industrial forms of production in the context of sustainability.

WANTED: Pilot Project Partners

Immediately after the Ars Electronica Festival, the WerkNetz project’s one-year pilot phase commences. Taking a generous approach, acar2’s partners are seeking to carry out a prototype initiative designed to establish how WerkNetz can convert deserted ticket counter areas, restaurants and waiting rooms in approximately 20 railway stations over the medium term into a networked platform for experimental tourism and sustainable production.
WerkNetz functions as a decentralized technology park for entrepreneurial craftsmen with high-tech proclivities who utilize state-of-the-art machinery to produce single pieces customized to client specifications. As a gateway to its respective region, each train station will constitute that area’s specific awakening to the call of post-industrial sustainability—for example, in tourism, minergy, recycling, transportation, organic agriculture or R&D. Four fishing rods are equipped with electric stepper motors hooked up to their reels, and the fishing line from each are connected to a single CONNECT metal clip. The rods are set up in the four corners of a room, thus constituting a robotic system that can access the entire space. On each delivery run, the flying metal clip removes a WerkNetz newspaper from its stack and then proceeds along its algorithmically controlled, silent flight path to then gently set the paper down before the reader.