THE AGBOGBLOSHIE ROBOTIC E-MPORIUM FOR INNOVATION: ANTI-SILICON VALLEY OF AFRICA

by Agata Korzeniewska

The project proposes the use of swarms of small robots to build an Innovation Centre in Agbogbloshie, world’s biggest e-waste dump, building on the entrepreneurial and creative qualities of the Agbogbloshie Community and using the advanced technology for a good cause clearing that area from toxins. Mimicking swarming construction method from nature - aggregation - swarms of small robots work to assemble building modules from car wishbones found amongst the scrap, putting then those modules together into a permanent Agbogbloshie Robotic E-mporium for Innovation and a series of temporary workshops and material centres responding to the ever-changing waste landscape of the scrapyard. In the case of the project, car wishbone has been chosen due to its structural qualities, size (appropriate for a small robot) and its abundance in Agbogbloshie Scrapyard. The Agbogbloshie Robotic E-mporium for Innovation fuels the local development in a sustainable Cradle to Cradle way, giving new value to the waste found on site whilst removing the need for complex processing methods and thus clearing the area from toxins that would be otherwise released into the environment.