The Monocle Minute

You have, almost certainly, travelled in a driverless train. You might have ridden in a driverless car. But you need to start thinking about how happy you would be taking off in a pilotless plane. This is one of the more arresting prospects posed by this year’s Farnborough Air Show. The evolutionary step from remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles to passenger aircraft being trusted to navigate themselves to their destination is being seriously considered by serious people.

One Farnborough exhibitor, US company Merlin, is already working with the country’s Department of Defense on autonomous-flight technology that will, in due course, allow mighty transport aircraft, such as the C-130 Hercules and KC-135 Stratotanker, to fly themselves. A KC-135 is bigger than a Boeing 737, so there is no technical nor logical reason why autonomous planes should not carry human cargo.

It would be, however, a considerable psychological leap for those boarding. A driverless train is pretty easy to trust: it’s on rails, which limits the possibility of veering calamitously off course. A driverless car is maybe a bit more of an adjustment but, nevertheless, you are, fundamentally, on the ground. Most people involved in car accidents survive them and if you hit someone, it will go worse for them than for you. On a plane, though, surely we’re always going to want to know that sitting up front is an experienced, implacable aviator – ideally wearing reflector shades and a seen-it-all expression – ready, willing and able to bring us down safely should something go awry.

A considerable challenge awaits the advertising agencies commissioned to sell this notion. Someone will try and some might succeed: there was doubtless a time when it seemed incredible that we would trust humans to hurtle us through the sky in metal tubes. The slogan, at least, writes itself: this isn’t your captain speaking.

Andrew Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle and presenter of ‘The Foreign Desk’ on Monocle Radio. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Such is the punctuality of Japan’s bullet-train network that any break in the system makes headline news. So it was early yesterday morning, when two maintenance trains collided and caused disruption to the Tokaido Shinkansen, the key high-speed route that connects Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka. The service between Tokyo and Nagoya was suspended immediately but the knock-on effect soon spread through the system, affecting high-speed trains going west of Tokyo. All of JR Central’s Nozomi trains – the fastest services between Tokyo and Osaka – were soon stopped, while JR West had to cancel its trains going west from Osaka to Fukuoka.

To help stranded passengers, All Nippon Airways even began operating special flights between Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Osaka’s Itami Airport. Work to remove the damaged vehicles, in the midst of a searing heatwave, took longer than anticipated and delays were still expected this morning. The Tokaido Shinkansen is a marvel, running to precise timings with only the briefest of intervals between departures. Residents take the reliability of the network for granted. When things go wrong, as happened yesterday, it should be taken seriously.

If you find yourself in Naples, drop into the city’s contemporary art museum, Madre, for Il Resto di Niente (The Remains of Nothing). The exhibition, a collaboration with Gucci that runs until 29 July, investigates the relationship between architecture and daily life, and the emotions that buildings evoke. The theme was chosen by Gucci’s Naples-born creative director, Sabato de Sarno, who seeks to change many of the preconceived ideas about his home city and enhance its status as a thriving Mediterranean metropolis. The show features works by Jim C Nedd and Domenico Salierno but one figure looms large: Aldo Loris Rossi.

A radical architect and urban planner with a futurist bent, Rossi transformed Naples between the 1960s and 1980s with his brutalist works – notably Casa del Portuale and the Piazza Grande housing complex. Il Resto di Niente is a chance to take in his intricate, utopian design sketches. It is also a testament to Gucci’s desire to be part of the urbanist conversation.

Bloqs co-founders Arnaud Nichols and Al Parra have created a shared-workspace model for the manufacturing industry. The company offers pay-as-you-go spaces providing creatives and businesses with flexible access to top-tier machinery, tools and a community of other makers. Monocle heads to the brand’s north London workshop to find out more.

What roadblocks did you hit when you were establishing Bloqs?
Arnaud Nichols: One of our core principles was to work out how to run a business that was self-sustaining and completely unsupported by anybody else – but would allow people in the manufacturing industry to have the most flexible access to the necessary facilities. Finding a solution to these issues was the key to our success. Once we did that, people began to come to us, even before we did any advertising or marketing.

What does Bloqs’ payment system entail?
AN: We employ a pay-as-you-go system at the factory. That’s one of the reasons why our community has grown so much. It simplifies the process – you don’t need to pay when there’s no work to do, since you don’t need the facilities. But when you have jobs lined up, you can afford it. There’s no risk. Users of private workspaces such as this one don’t have to think about making further investments. They don’t need to buy machines; there’s no rent or bills to consider. It sounds like a simple model but it has propelled a lot of growth in our industry.

How exactly has it affected the sector?
Al Parra: As well as providing many small companies with the space that they need, Bloqs offers a lot of tools and technologies that have traditionally only been accessible to larger brands that have the advantage of making things at scale, such as Ikea. We put this machinery into the hands of new, creative, forward-thinking businesses that wouldn’t otherwise have it. There’s a middle ground between the Ikeas and the small individual producers. That’s what we have opened up.

For our full interview with Arnaud Nichols and Al Parra, tune in to the latest episode of‘The Entrepreneurs’, on Monocle Radio.

We highlight three events that should be on your radar, starting with a trip to London’s Royal Academy of Arts to explore Ukrainian modernism. Then we head to the south of France for this year’s edition of a major summer photography festival, before hearing from US artist Lonnie Holley at his new show at London’s Camden Art Centre, All Rendered Truth.