Last November, it was 7 years after the launching paper was presented at NordiCHI, "Near future cities of things: addressing dilemmas through design fiction". It made me think it would be nice to reflect on the last seven years, especially on the state of Cities of Things, with
Welcome! Whether you've encountered the Wijkbot in person or heard about it, read on for an introduction to how the Wijkbot came about and its journey so far. On this website you'll find many examples of neighborhood robots built in workshops, in the Cities of Things
This week, Wijkbot is present in different forms at two events, one in Amsterdam and one in Delft. ESConference, Amsterdam, 11-13 February 2026 The Wijkbot Kit 2.0 is part of the ESC conference exhibition, the annual conference of the Expertisenetwork Systemic Co-Design*, held 11-13 February at Pakhuis de Zwijger,
At MakerDays 2025, the MakerFaire in Eindhoven, the Future Parade is a fixed part of the programme on 27 & 28 September 2025. The Wijkbot was part of the parade with a special version of the Gemaal op Zuid Rotterdam project, where children build their own robots from leftover market
As a little experiment and a way to reflect on a part of the research from the last 7 years of Cities of Things, I used the (in)famous Notebook LM tool to create a podcast discussing research sources. The result was rather pleasing, in the sense that based on
In my piece for RIOT 2025 (June 2025), I argued that generative and agentic AI push us into something qualitatively different: intelligence no longer as an app, but as an atmosphere—infused into objects, services, and environments until the fabric of everyday life becomes conversational. The shift is not only
Weekly reflection on human-AI-things collaborations The shift isn’t from human coders to AI agents. It’s from coding to engineering. Every, the company behind Lex (which I’m using right now), released four predictions for 2026. The one that stuck with me: the rise of the “agentic engineer.” A
The weekly reflections on the news in human-AI-thing co-performances are brought to life via a story from the future of living with agentic things in the city. A Day in the life: The Ginger Grid I wake to a soft ripple of brass and bike chains—the “Bitter Bridge” profile
The weekly reflections on the news in human-AI-thing co-performances are brought to life via a story from the future of living with agentic things in the city. This month, we go inside the home. A Day with NutriSphere: The Ambient Kitchen 6:30 AM: Maya's bedroom gradually brightens
The weekly reflections on the news in human-AI co-performances are brought to life via a story from the future of living with agentic things in the city. Morning, with headlines Maya scrolls the morning headlines with her thumb, the screen casting a cool light across the kitchen table. War, elections,
On 17 July, Cities of Things was invited by Catch A Fire Agency to organise, design, and moderate a speculative design workshop for one of their clients on the topic of Agentic AI and its relation to the addiction to immediacy. The workshop was part of a full-day program for
Since this year I update the Substack Cities of Things with a short speculative design exercise. In good current habit, in a back-to-back composing with Claude (via Lex.page): I bring in my thoughts, I create an object concept and Claude is creating a little day-in-the-life story of it, and