“We are living in the age of the iPhone, yet the architecture and construction industries are still in the Walkman phase,” said UNStudio co-founder Van Berkel.
“If you look at the latest Tesla for instance, it has maybe a few hundred sensors in it,” he told Dezeen. “But an average building has maybe three sensors.”
Architecture “needs to catch up”
UNSense will operate separately from UNStudio, with a distinct funding structure. It is located in a separate building, at the Freedom Lab Campus tech hub in Amsterdam.
The company will employ data scientists and programmers and collaborate with professions including neuroscientists, sociologists and economists to explore how technology can improve interiors, buildings and cities.