Carlo Ratti

The way we live, work, and play is very different today than it was just a few decades ago, thanks in large part to a network of connectivity that now encompasses most people on the planet. In a similar way, today we are at the beginning of a new technological revolution: the Internet is entering the physical space – the traditional domain of architecture and design – becoming an “Internet of Things” or IoT. As such, it is opening the door to a variety of applications that – in a similar way to what happened with the first wave of the Internet – can encompass many domains: from production to citizen participation, from energy to mobility to public hygiene, all of which requiring new insights due to the changes brought forth by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution from Prof. Carlo Ratti will address these issues from a critical point of view through projects by the Senseable City Laboratory, a research initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the design office Carlo Ratti Associati.

Today, our cities produce unprecedented amounts of data, which can be harnessed and transformed into responses from the citizens or the government. The convergence between digital information and the physical environment, bound by IoT networks, has enormous potential. Applications can be indeed manifold: from waste management, to energy, public health, civic participation, mobility… For instance, real time data collected from cities can radically transform the way we get around, and how we design our roads – in a more efficient way: today, it gives us a new understanding of the COVID pandemic’s impact on mobility infrastructure. Smart working introduces the possibility to “flatten the curve” of peak-hour road usage through staggered commuting. Looking to the future, self-driving vehicles promise to influence urban life even more substantially by blurring the distinction between private and public modes of transportation. “Your” car could give you a lift to work in the morning and then, rather than sitting idle in a parking lot, give a lift to someone else in your family – or, for that matter, to anyone else in your neighborhood, social-media community, or city.