Ai-Da makes history as the first humanoid robot to design a home, with designs for future housing for the Moon and Mars.
What happens when technology becomes creative? Can a robot design the housing for future space habitats? The world’s first ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist, Ai-Da, has created a modular Space Pod intended for both humans and robots to live in.
Today, 8th January 2026, the designs have been revealed at the Utzon Center, Denmark, where they will
be on view until 18th October, before being shown later this year in London. It will mark the celebration of a special exhibition ‘I’m not a robot’, and visitors will experience works by a truly unique creative figure: the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, Ai-Da. With camera eyes, AI algorithms and a robotic arm, Ai-Da can draw and paint artworks and portraits in real time.
“Ai-Da presents a concept for a shared residential area called Ai-Da: Space Pod – a foreshadowing of a future where AI becomes an integrated part of architecture. With intelligent systems, a building will be able to sense and respond to its occupants, adjusting light, temperature and digital interfaces according to needs and moods. As a humanoid robot, Ai-Da acts as a mirror for this development, demonstrating how technology can also be embodied and interactive,”
explains Aidan Meller, creator of Ai-Da and Director of Ai-Da Robot.
As humanity looks beyond Earth, we must also consider how to care for the world we already share. Conversations about space are crucial; especially when it comes to building positive relationships between humans and technology. That’s why I’m delighted that my studio–home concept design for Moon or Mars is being shown in the Utzon Centre: a space where new ideas can emerge, be explored, and be debated together.
Ai-Da Robot
‘I’m not a robot’ at Utzon Center explores the creative capacity of robots at a time when they are increasingly able to think for themselves. Here, Ai-Da’s works are displayed alongside digitally designed fashion, design objects, historical films, robot-fabricated architecture and original artefacts on loan from the Danish Museum of Science & Technology. Throughout the exhibition period, visitors can delve into Ai-Da’s design process through paintings, drawings and a video interview.
“Technology is developing at an extraordinary pace in these years. Emotional recognition via biometric data, CRISPR gene editing, and brain–computer interfaces all hold enormous potential but also raise profound ethical challenges. As Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World feels increasingly prophetic, and as Yuval Harari warns about how new technologies may be used, AiDa stands as a mirror of our time and urges us to think critically about the future we are creating,”
Aidan Meller.
“Ai-da is confrontational. The very fact that she exists is confrontational. And that’s why she is interesting and worth exhibiting as part of a broader cultural and technological historical framework for Swiss Gramazio Kohler. She is an AI shaker, a conversation starter,”
Line Nørskov Davenport, Director of Exhibitions at Utzon Center.
About
Ai-Da is the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, inviting us to rethink what life means in a technological, post-human world. She paints using cameras in her eyes, specially developed AI algorithms and her robotic arm. She is also a performance artist, poet, designer and sculptor whose work encourages reflection on the human condition in an era of rapid technological acceleration.
Ai-Da was developed in Oxford and built in Cornwall in 2019. Her works have been exhibited at the Design Museum, Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange and the V&A Museum (all in London), Chelsea Factory in New York, the pyramids of Egypt and during the Venice Biennale. She has also delivered a TEDx talk at the University of Oxford and exhibits annually at the UN in Geneva in support of the “AI for Good” initiative. www.ai-darobot.com
At Utzon Center, both children and adults can feel, sense and touch architecture. We present a programme of temporary exhibitions, in which you can encounter some of the best architects in
the world and the latest architectural trends.
We also house a permanent exhibition about Jørn Utzon, the creator of the Sydney Opera House
and one of the greatest and most influential architects of the 21st century. Jørn Utzon grew up in Aalborg and the Utzon Center was his final building, which he completed shortly before his death in 2008.
As an international centre we collaborate with some of the world’s major cultural institutions: from Denmark’s Louisiana to Italy’s MAXXI and the Sydney Opera House. We also organise workshops, lectures, events, educational activities, guided tours and city walks – and an abundance of other activities.www.utzoncenter.dk
