'Maurice's Last Shift,' Top Prize winner in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

Maurice's Last Shift by Tim Papienski Just after dawn, as light rain pattered down on the tarps of the construction site, Maurice stepped gently, trying not to land in the mud. As he passed through the guarded entrance, the banner above proudly proclaimed “847 days without a workplace accident.”  Mounted on a pole below, was the ever-present red Stop Work button. Maurice was a Sensor Jockey.  Led a crew of them, in fact.  He was retiring after 40 years, and today was his last shift. Maurice has spent his entire working life on jobsites such as this—big, sprawling constructions. He knew everything a person could know.   The jobsite was a repurpose of an abandoned office complex, a mix of apartments, businesses and “Temps.” Maurice headed to the end of the site, the final section block of Temps being printed.  The great gantry had been rolled into place, the concrete extruder paused dramatically, like a monk about to illuminate the edges of a medieval bible. Nobody really knew what wa...

'Maurice's Last Shift,' Top Prize winner in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

Maurice's Last Shift by Tim Papienski

Just after dawn, as light rain pattered down on the tarps of the construction site, Maurice stepped gently, trying not to land in the mud. As he passed through the guarded entrance, the banner above proudly proclaimed “847 days without a workplace accident.”  Mounted on a pole below, was the ever-present red Stop Work button.

Maurice was a Sensor Jockey.  Led a crew of them, in fact.  He was retiring after 40 years, and today was his last shift. Maurice has spent his entire working life on jobsites such as this—big, sprawling constructions. He knew everything a person could know.  

The jobsite was a repurpose of an abandoned office complex, a mix of apartments, businesses and “Temps.” Maurice headed to the end of the site, the final section block of Temps being printed.  The great gantry had been rolled into place, the concrete extruder paused dramatically, like a monk about to illuminate the edges of a medieval bible.

Nobody really knew what wa...