RETAIL
Could the
future
pharmacy
combat
Dr Google?
BERLIN – How should designers respond to
the coming age of robots? By placing them
in a context of human warmth and nostalgia,
says Germany’s Studio Aisslinger.
For Apotheke, a premium pharmacy
in Berlin’s Schultheiss neighbourhood, the
studio’s designers imagine the future while
revisiting the past by combining cutting-
edge technology with a familiar, Eames-
inspired aesthetic. The 250-m^2 interior
showcases a robot arm that moves speedily
along the shelves, selecting and delivering
medicines efficiently and precisely (reas-
suringly, its picks are checked by a human
pharmacist prior to sale).
‘The technology is actually quite
common; many pharmacies have it,’ says
Studio Aisslinger’s Monika Losos, ‘but usu-
ally it’s hidden in the stock area, as though
it had nothing to do with us humans. Yet
technology now permeates our whole exist-
ence. We should accept that and find ways to
coexist with robots, instead of glamorizing
or condemning them. This is why we reveal
technology that’s usually hidden, putting it
out in the open, into the heart of what hap-
pens in a pharmacy.’
In doing so, the designers encoun-
tered some resistance – not from the client,
but from technologists. ‘It was difficult to
convince the robot supplier to open up the
claddings and make them glazed,’ explains
Losos. ‘The engineers apparently don’t want
anybody to see the heart of the machine.’
After a lot of talking, they were convinced,
but for Losos the initial hesitation reveals
‘how difficult it is to really change our under-
standing of, and our attitude towards, this »
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