Ludo Groen is a doctoral candidate in the history and theory of architecture (gta) at ETH Zürich, while practicing architecture from his eponymous studio. His doctoral research, part of the SNSF-funded research project “Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral,” documents the architecture of Swiss banking before and after 1968.
        Between 2018 and 2021, he worked as a researcher at The Berlage at Delft University of Technology and Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch institute for architecture, design, and digital culture. At The Berlage he was involved in the organisation of lectures, master classes, teaching, and various book projects. At Het Nieuwe Instituut, he contributed to various exhibitions and research projects, including Automated Landscapes, which will be published in the forhcoming book Automated Landscapes, documenting the emerging automated architectures of dairy farms, greenhouses, data centers, and factories, in the Netherlands and beyond.
        Ludo holds a master degree in architecture from Delft University of Technology and a post-master degree from The Berlage.
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Automated Landscapes
Triennale di Milano/
Het Nieuwe Instituut
Contributor*
February—July, 2019
Automation, and the 24-hour, 365-day production cycle it enables, disrupts labour markets and the configuration, design and occupation of entire territories. This collaborative research looks at the greenhouses that occupy vast parts of the country, and where the productivity of the ground is controlled and maximised by automated technologies. In their interiors flowers and fruits grow assisted by climate control, artificial lighting, and water and nutrient distribution systems. This data-filled garden reveals itself to the outside world in the screens of the control rooms and smartphones through which operations are monitored, as well as through the colossal photo-pollution generated by greenhouse emissions.




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