Project ‘Cowborgs in the polder’: from designed dairy landscapes to nitrogen crisis
Automated technologies have driven the transformation and growth of the Dutch dairy industry. Today, this sector is questioned for its adverse effect on nature, especially in the context of the nitrogen crisis. To better address environmental problems caused by farming, it is important to understand how the use of automation and other digital technologies in this sector is affecting those places where food is produced. How has the design of farm buildings, animal bodies and technologies transformed Dutch dairy landscapes?
NWO grant
NWO awarded the project ‘Cowborgs in the polder’ to examine the built environment of Dutch dairy farming. This transdisciplinary research study will examine the interactions between animals, humans, robots, data technologies, and farm architecture in the industrialized large-scale Dutch dairy landscapes, from 1992 to the nitrogen crisis. Ultimately, the project will broaden our conception of how technology and industrial capitalism shape the built environment.
More information
- The NWO SSH Open Competition XS grant was awarded to Dr Víctor Muñoz Sanz of the department Urbanism of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft. He conducts critical research on the architecture and urbanism of the past, present and future of work.
- For more information, please contact Víctor Muñoz Sanz.
- More information about the NWO SSH Open Competition XS can be found here.