The Future of Work

The project is an investigation and look into the future of the relationship between humans, work and technology. Throughout human history there have been different understandings of what work is. The greeks for example considered work a curse, "left to the slaves". Often paradigm shifting events like the industrial revolution changed this understanding. The prediction is made that another event like this is coming through the advancement in quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI), changing our relationship to work once more.
A quantum computer does not calculate in 1s and 0s, like traditional computers do, but rather in superposition, meaning in all directions at once, leading to massive leaps in AI and machine learning. Thus, the prediction is, that in the near future we will witness a massive decrease of work and an increase of free time and leisure.
The question emerges, what does an employement agency as an institution do if there is no work left to do and everything is given to the machine?
The institution should then be a place of interaction with the machine, and a place to enjoy the newly found free time.

The cube, placed on a concrete base between the noisy railways and the autobahn tracks at the southern entry of Karlsruhe, is essentially a massive data center, completely closed off from it's surroundings. Tilted to face north and aligning with the autobahn axis, the cube stands out from it
surroundings.
Its facades power the machine through solar to the south and east and function as exhaust air in the west and north.
Inside the machine, after a vertical truss structure with quantum computers stacked in between (the back end of the technology) comes the front end, the part of the technology that is presented to the user. Accessible through a narrow corridor, containing circulation and services for the open space inside.
The open space is defined by a series of volumes.
Inside of the the volumes, where learning, seminar rooms or an AI lab is located, the user hands over his demands to the machine or learns how to use it. In contrast, on top of the volumes and in the open space the user can then spend his time with leisure, relaxation or human interaction. A series of escalators connect the volumes with one another. The volumes are arranged according to their daylight demands and placed to each other so the noise get's caught off from the volumes above. Thus the atmosphere inside the cube remains quiet and peaceful, enhancing the feeling of being inside the machine.
Through the two usages of the volumes a relationship between the machine and the human exists - the human both feeds the machine with data and profits from his service through the free time now available.
Structurally, each volume is hanging on steal ropes connected to the truss structure, and then connected to the outside floor, essentially functioning like a crane. This suspended structure remains the only communication to the outside world.
Text von Lars Lampert.