I’m Not a Robot: Architecture and Design Between Human and Machine
Nov 18th 2025, 9:55am
A tower built by drones, a vineyard constructed by industrial robots and a robot that creates architecture from leftover materials. Experience the architecture exhibition I’m Not a Robot at the Utzon Center – an exploration of the creative power of robots in an age when machines are increasingly able to think for themselves.
Presented in collaboration with Switzerland-based Gramazio Kohler, world-renowned architects and pioneers in the intersection between robotics and architecture, the exhibition explores how technology, design and art merge in the hands of both humans and machines.
Discover I’m Not a Robot from 20 November 2025.
Vintage tin robot. Photo: Utzon Center
A tower assembled by a swarm of drones. Industrial robots crafting a façade relief for a vineyard in Switzerland. Or a robot that ties pebbles together with rope to create architecture from leftover materials.
It might sound like science fiction, but it is already a reality.
At the exhibition, visitors will encounter everything from Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Alan Turing’s codebreaker and an early Apple computer to Peter Cook’s radical Kunsthauz Graz and one of today’s most advanced AI art experiments.
Several historical artefacts have been loaned from the Danish Museum of Science and Technology.
Between Human and Machine
“Our machines have become so advanced that they are not only superior in strength and precision, they have also developed a kind of consciousness – almost independent of humans. This is why we’ve chosen to create an exhibition about this evolution that takes place when together humans, robots and AI create new worlds of architecture, design and art. Together with our visitors, we explore not only the history of robotics and technology, and our fascination with them, but also the ambivalence we often feel towards that which robots create,” explains Line Nørskov Davenport, Exhibition Director at the Utzon Center.
“Robots and AI are no longer merely tools; they are also becoming co-creators. They help us draw, calculate, build and shape the spaces we inhabit. Between the human hand and machine power, new aesthetics, new forms of architecture and new methods of construction emerge, containing both great potential and interesting challenges,” she adds.
Architecture and Robotics
At the heart of the exhibition is a series of works by the world-renowned architect duo Gramazio Kohler. For the last two decades, professors Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler have been experimenting with architecture and robotics at one of the world’s most advanced robotic laboratories at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
“We have always been interested in redefining the relationship between humans and machines. For us, the robot has never been an opponent but a very sophisticated tool: one that we can understand, control and take pride in using. We believe it’s possible to return to a more balanced, craft-like relationship with technology, in which the maker and the tool evolve together. In this sense, the robot becomes part of the creative process itself, helping us do things we could never achieve alone,” says Fabio Gramazio.
Matthias Kohler adds: “We’re very interested in the field that opens up between data and material. It might sound a bit abstract, but when algorithms start to interact with materials like sand, clay or pebbles, you can actually see the code take shape. Yet it’s never perfect or fully predictable. The robot’s precision encounters the natural behaviour of the material, and something poetic comes out of that. It’s exciting to watch humans and machines creating together in such a physical and intuitive way.”
From Antiquity to AI
Along with Gramazio Kohler’s work, the exhibition also delves into the history of robots in a broader technological and cultural context, with references to fashion, design and art.
Today, when they hear the word “robot”, most people probably think of artificial intelligence. Yet the robot – a term derived from the Czech word for “worker” or “servant” – is far from a new invention. You can even trace humanity’s fascination with robotic technology back to antiquity, when a Greek mathematician described a steam-powered dove.
What Do We Want from Robots?
The rapid developments in recent years within the field of artificial intelligence mark a turning point: machines can now think for themselves.
These questions and reflections also feature in the exhibition, which includes works by the British humanoid robot artist Ai-Da, whose self-portrait is displayed alongside digitally-designed fashion, design objects, historical films and original items on loan from the Danish Museum of Science and Technology.
“When technology becomes so self-aware that it develops intuition and creativity, the drama between human and machine intensifies. But what do we humans actually want from robots?
“I think it’s crucial that we remain critical about what machines should and shouldn’t do. At the same time, I hope we can help free robots from the corner into which they’re often pushed. The story of humans and machines is full of both dystopias and dreams, and we must be conscious of both.
“But when you see collaborative and craft-based approach to new technology of Gramazio Kohler’s architecture and research, an clear potential for sensuousness, ecology and hope emerges. It is in that spirit we are presenting I’m Not a Robot,” says Line Nørskov Davenport.
Practical Information
The exhibition I’m Not a Robot is a collaboration with Gramazio Kohler Architecture and Research (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and features loans from the Danish Museum of Science and Technology etc.
The exhibition is part of the Utzon Center’s Quantum Leaps series, which presents architecture and design at the intersection between cutting-edge science and aesthetics.
The exhibition opens on 20 November 2025.
About Gramazio Kohler Architecture and Research
Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler are Swiss architects, and Professors of Architecture and Digital Fabrication at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. They are the co-founders of the architectural research group Gramazio Kohler Research, which focuses on the integration of new technologies into architectural design and construction.
Gramazio and Kohler have been leading figures in the fields of computational design and digital fabrication in architecture, and their research and practice have contributed significantly to advancing the use of computational and robotic technologies in the building industry. They have lectured and have received numerous awards for their contributions to the field.
Their work, ranging from full-scale architecture to abstract art installations, has gained international recognition worldwide with exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Vitra Design Museum and many more – and now, for the first time in the Nordic region, with a major exhibition.
Raising Robotic Natives. Credit: Stephan Bogner, Philipp Schmitt and Jonas Voigt
In the exhibition guests can also explore Leonardo da Vincis inventions
Rock Print - building technique with rope and gravel. Credit: Gramazio Kohler
The exhibition is supported by:
VOLA, Den Filantropiske Forening Realdania, Augustinus Fonden, Det Obelske Familiefond, Dreyers Fond, Knud Højgaards Fond samt Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond.