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Carlo Ratti (born 1971 in Turin, Italy) is an Italian architect, engineer, inventor
/a> and author. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he directs the MIT Senseable City Lab. Ratti is also a founding partner of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, an international design and innovation firm with locations in Turin, New York and London.
Additionally, he holds positions as Distinguished Professor in the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and Honorary Professor at TTPU Tashkent.
Ratti was named one of the "50 most influential designers in America" by Fast CompanyFast Company: 50 most influential designers in America and highlighted in Wired magazine's "Smart List: 50 people who will change the world". Wired " Smart List; 50 people who will change the world" Ratti has been featured in Esquire magazine's "Best & Brightest" list" Best and Brightest 2008: Four Innovative Mapmakers Re-inventing the Very Idea of Maps". Esquire (2008) and in Thames & Hudson's selection of "60: Innovators Shaping our Creative Future".Interview with Lucas Dietrich, Commissioning Editor Blueprint magazine included him as one of the "25 People Who Will Change Architecture and Design","25 who will change architecture and design in 2010". Blueprint. (December 2009) Forbes listed him as one of the "Names You Need To Know"." Names You Need to Know in 2011: Carlo Ratti" by Oliver Chiang in Forbes (December 2011) In December 2023, Carlo Ratti was appointed by outgoing president Roberto Cicutto as curator of the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture, opening in 2025. Ratti Appointed Curator of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale by Maria-Cristina Florian in ArchDaily (December 2023)
In 2000, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Fulbright scholar, working with Hiroshi Ishii at the MIT Media Lab.
Ratti's work includes Copenhagen Wheel developed by MIT Senseable City Lab explores how any bicycle could be transformed into a network-connected e-bike by simply changing a wheel hub. The project Trash Track uses electronic tracking to better understand and optimise flows of waste through cities. He has also opened a research centre in Singapore as part of an MIT-led initiative on the Future of Urban Mobility.Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) " Future Urban Mobility "
Ratti's work has been seminal in intelligent or smart cities. In an article" Social Nexus: Harnessing Residents' Electronic Devices Will Yield Truly Smart Cities", Scientific American (September 2011) published in Scientific American together with Anthony M. Townsend, however, Ratti contrasts the prevailing technocratic vision of smart cities – highlighting instead the "human face" of urban technologies and their potential in promoting bottom-up social empowerment.
Several design projects rely on data visualisation. Real Time Rome, which filled an entire pavilion at the 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture, explored real-time dynamics of a city mapped through cellphone data. New York Talk Exchange, exhibited at MoMA in New York City as part of the exhibition "Design and the Elastic Mind", moved further to explore global communication flows together with Saskia Sassen. Several projects from the MIT Senseable City Lab were included in Fast Company "Best Infographics of 2011".' The Connected States of America' and ' Health Infoscape' by MIT Senseable City Lab in "The 22 Best Infographics We Found in 2011" by Fast Company http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665705/the-22-best-infographics-we-found-in-2011#9 A data analysis and visualisation project resulted in an Op-Ed in The New York Times to redesign the map of the United States." Phone-Call Cartography" Carlo Ratti in The New York Times Sunday Review (2 July 2011)
During the 2013 Milan Design Week ("Salone del Mobile"), CRA ventured into product design with a project for Italian furniture manufacturer Cassina, called "Our Universe". At the same venue, another project, called "Makr Shakr", explored The Third Industrial Revolution and its effect on creativity and design through the simple process of making a drink.
Ratti curated the "Future Food District" – one of the themed pavilions at Expo 2015 in Milan. In 2017, CRA was part of the team led by developer Lendlease, which won the international competition to transform the former area of Milan's Expo 2015 into a district focused on science and innovation (MIND-Milan Innovation District).
Featuring an open-frame structure that reveals the internal flame mechanism, the torches are constructed from recycled aluminum and a brass alloy, with an iridescent finish achieved through Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). Two color variants distinguish the events: Shades of Sky for the Olympic Games and Mountains of Light for the Paralympic Games. The grip is made of XL EXTRALIGHT®, a bio-based polymer derived from renewable sources.
Each torch is engineered for reuse and can be refueled up to ten times, reducing the environmental footprint of the torch relay. The torches were unveiled at both the Triennale di Milano and the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka.Some torches will be part of the collection of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
While a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, Ratti was one of the initiators of Progetto Collegium for the reform of Italian universities, together with philosophers Umberto Eco and Marco Santambrogio. The project led to the foundation of the Collegio di Milano and other institutions in Italy. Ratti has been involved in several civic initiatives, most notably to preserve Italy's industrial architecture heritage.Masterplan Manifattura Tabacchi, Rovereto, Italy, a project by Carlo Ratti Associati
Launched in 2014, Makr Shakr is a startup producing robotic bartending systems, whose products have been installed aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ships as well as in malls and hotels in the US, France, the UK, and Italy.
In 2018, Ratti contributed to the launch of Scribit, a company manufacturing a portable, wall-mounted drawing robot. In 2019, Scribit was named among Time magazine's Innovation of the Year.
In a seminal paper in Environment and Planning B, Ratti questions the validity of the urban analysis technique Space Syntax. He has been opening the way in exploring the use of cellphone data to understand urban dynamics, which has now developed into an established field of scientific investigation. In general, the MIT Senseable City Lab works on papers that use network analysis and complexity science to better understand cities.For example: "Eigenplaces: analysing cities using the space-time structure of the mobile phone network" by Jonathan Reades, Francesco Calabrese and Carlo Ratti in Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design (2009; volume 36(5); pages 824 – 836) http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=b34133t Such aspects were discussed by Ratti in Seed magazine's Salon, together with mathematician Steven Strogatz.
Ratti often writes editorials and articles for international media. As well as being a contributor to Project Syndicate, he has written for Scientific American, The Architectural Review, La Stampa, BBC, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Domus, Il Sole 24 Ore.
He appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in November 2019. His hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "A Bionics".
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