Senseable Cities, Talk by Carlo Ratti

Digital technologies are leaving our screens and entering the physical world of buildings and streets, turning cities into systems that sense and adapt.  Much like the early Internet, this shift opens possibilities across energy, mobility, production, public space, and civic life.  Drawing on research at the MIT Senseable City Lab and built work by Carlo Ratti Associati, Professor Carlo Ratti examines how this convergence can make cities more inclusive and more human. 

 

Bio: Carlo Ratti is an architect and engineer who leads the design and innovation practice CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs the MIT Senseable City Lab. He is also a professor at the Politecnico di Milano. His work explores how digital tools and collective intelligence can help cities adapt to a changing world. He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later earned an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His work has been exhibited at venues including La Biennale di Venezia, the Design Museum in Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was the Curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.