This research-driven architectural model investigates the hidden physical networks behind digital food delivery in Nicosia. While delivery apps project an illusion of immaterial consumption, couriers navigate a car-centric infrastructure, creating unseen mobility networks. CARE POD: From the Delivery Box as an Object to a Micro-Space of Care features stratified maps documenting the daily routes or “flows” of these workers, revealing a complex distribution network that remains largely invisible.

Resting atop this physical mapping is a 1:10 scale, interactive prototype of the “Care Pod”, developed as part of a diploma thesis. Just as in its real-world proposal, the model’s components are modular and adaptable. It redefines the standardised delivery box into a technologically integrated micro-space of care, providing essential sanitation, rest and social infrastructure for couriers during their exhausting waiting times.

Directly engaging with the WIP Festival theme of FLOWS, the design proposal contrasts the seamless digital flow of capital and data with the fragmented, physically demanding flow of human labour. By introducing a spatial node for pause within the relentless urban current, the project acts as a tactical urbanism mechanism. It highlights how rethinking infrastructure can intercept urban flows to reclaim inhospitable spaces and support the vulnerable bodies sustaining our on-demand economy.