From this lobby you can see clouds - outside and inside. The new Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) in Shenzhen, China, has vast skylights illuminating a gleaming steel structure that hosts the museum's café and store.
"I call it a 'cloud' because its polished surface seems to change, like a real cloud's," says Wolf D Prix, co-founder of Austria-based architects Coop Himmeb(l)au, which designed the museum. The cloud's shape, says Prix, 74, was influenced by the work of sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
Coop Himmeb(l)au is working on two projects - another museum and a multifunctional centre, both in Austria - which will use construction robots supplied by Chinese firm MSC.
Prix says he wants to bring robotics and 3D printing into architecture: "One could create more fantastical, organic forms while staying in the same price range for regular buildings," he explains. Is that advocating for fewer workers? Not quite.
"Robots will have to be integrated into building, and builders will need to learn to work with them," he says. "Think more educated builders, not fewer builders."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
