Robot van der Rohe : 375 Park Avenue and the Future of the CBD

Abstract

Robot van der Rohe is a redevelopment proposal for the Seagrams Building at 375 Park Avenue in New York City. A concept for a Conscious Building is developed after a thorough introduction of financial, architectural and technological underpinnings. The topics of innovation economics, real estate finance, building design and construction, architectural history and theory, ubiquitous computing, sensor technologies, urban economics and design, zoning and network science are covered. Robot van der Rohe represents a future vision of a dynamic and fluid high-rise, mixed-use office tower. By utilizing a sophisticated suite of sensors, the building is able to better respond to the needs of its occupants, operate more energy efficiently and encourage a productive and happy workplace. By quantifying how teams work within the building, Robot van der Rohe represents the next generation of office environments and will allow for the reduction in the economic cost of social capital. By reducing the cost of a fundamental input of production, such a Conscious Building is poised to capture entrepreneurial profits through increased rents. In the world of the Conscious Building, the computer programmer augments the architect and the building owner becomes curator of a forever-innovating network of tenants.