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As part of the UX Studio programme at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, a mixed team of students worked on an app to support the brainstorming phase of Wijkbot workshops. Starting a new neighborhood robot from a blank canvas is not easy for everyone. To provide a first step,
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In this first post of 2025, I want to set out a theme for the year; "Cities of Things, Cities of Agents; living with agentic things as fellow citizens." This theme is a natural evolution from our focus on Things as Citizens, and it intertwines deeply with our
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Wrapped-up lists populate the email inbox and apps; this is not such a list, but let's have a look at the 2024 activities of Cities of Things. In the next post we will look forward to 2025 and the theme for the new year. We worked on the
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As part of the special edition of TH/NGS 2024 - Generative Things, an exhibition and design contest was commissioned to invite the design of "provotypes" of future generative things. The exhibition kicked off at the conference in Volkshotel Amsterdam on 13 December, and has an online version
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On 14 November, the Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative organised a programme in the neighbourhood for Woonstad employees. The day ended actively with a Wijkbot workshop. The workshop introduced employees to city robots, but was primarily an activity to connect staff with each other and close the day on an energetic note. In
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The Wijkbot was back at Dutch Design Week — this time as part of the Network of Applied Design Research gathering at Natlab on Tuesday morning, and throughout the rest of the week as part of the Stadslab Eindhoven exhibition. The NADR gathering focused on the ESCall project of the Expertise
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On 16 October, Wijkcoop Afrikaanderwijk organised an open day. One highlight was a Wijkbot parade featuring four neighborhood robots made by schoolchildren. The Afrikaanderwijk Cooperative used the WijkbotKit to help primary school children build Wijkbots constructed entirely from wind-blown litter and leftover materials from the market. During the open day,
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On 10 October we organised a workshop at the Society 5.0 Festival at The Social Hub Amsterdam, applying a new workshop format. At the festival, Smit hosted a workshop titled Transforming the Neighborhood Fabric with Hoodbots, exploring how technology can be designed to blend digital and physical realities in
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On 26 June, four teams of industrial design students at TU Delft presented their prototypes for so-called Neighborhood Navigators as part of the course Interactive Technology Design. Cities of Things was a partner in the course, inviting students to think about what it would mean if robots became a permanent
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On 6 & 7 June, the PublicSpaces conference took place in Amsterdam. Wijkbot was invited to run a workshop making the role of robots in the city tangible, with special attention to public values. We opened with a short presentation about the project background and offered scenarios showing ways the
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On 6 June Cities of Things will be hosting a Wijkbot workshop at the PublicSpaces conference. On 6 and 7 June, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab will organise the fourth edition of the PublicSpaces conference with the theme 'Taking Back the Internet'. The two-day programme will take place at
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A team of IPO (Industrial Product Design) students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences created a modular version of the WijkbotKit in semester 23 of the 2023/2024 academic year. A combination of sheet materials and connectors makes it possible to quickly create a volume with great freedom. The modular