10×10 in Architecture: Carlo Ratti

SLEEK Magazine’s Creative Impact List recognises groundbreaking talents from a range of disciplines, including fashion, art, health, architecture, design, technology, social responsibility, green energy, food, and more. It illustrates a gathering of ambitious, forward-looking minds, whose originality has led to meaningful change and offers inspiration to others. Each person on this list embodies the power of human potential and serves as a testament to the incredible things that can be accomplished through passion, resilience, and unwavering commitment.

So, prepare to be inspired, captivated, and motivated as we unveil the ranking of these inspiring individuals. Their stories serve as a reminder that when passion and purpose align, the impact created can transcend generations and inspire a brighter future for all. In the next issue of SLEEK we will introduce in SLEEK’s rubric‚ 10×10 architecture’s ten extraordinary, pioneering, contemporary, internationally well known architects and some of their projects.

S: Would you elaborate a bit more on what “living architecture” means to you? Is it a motor, a kind of guideline, an outlook?

Carlo Ratti: To me, living architecture is a bridge. It connects two realms – the artificial world and the natural world – that have been disconnected for far too long. There are two ways this can happen. First, the rise of Big Data, the Internet of Things and AI has the potential to make buildings “come alive”, giving our built environment the dynamism and responsiveness of natural ecosystems. At the same time, there is an explosion of actual natural organisms being incorporated into built structures. Green walls are just the beginning; we can turn entire skyscrapers into vertical farms and use orange peel and mycelium as front-line construction materials. If architects make it a habit to cross the bridge from the natural to the artificial, seeking both inspiration and living specimens, we can transform the world.

S: Your projects are created in an inherently multidisciplinary environment. The presence of social science disciplines is particularly interesting. Why do you include them?

CR: As William Shakespeare asked, “What is a city but the people?” The social sciences are the gateway to better design because they help us understand the people whom our work is actually for. It’s about using everything in our toolbox to make built environments that click together with the social environment. Not only can we use academic theories to inform our projects, but we can also use Big Data to put those theories to the test. We aren’t just building for users; we’re learning from them. That process is even more effective when you combine top-down analysis with direct input from citizens themselves. Then, we can create feedback loops of intervention and iteration, constantly improving our work as we go.

S: This kind of user research-led approach is more commonly found in web design. Why do they rely on it?

CR: The software and web design industries know that to optimise their products, they should be constantly gathering information from users. For instance, the process of A/B testing shows two slightly different versions of a software product to a small pool of users. The users’ responses become clear indicators of which variant is more successful. It’s harder to do that for a concrete building but we architects can develop our models of “A/B architecture” by using 3D models, virtual reality demos and light-touch, low-cost experiments to test out alternative prototypes.

S: How will cities look different in the future?

CR: Philosopher Karl Popper once said, “The future is open. It is not predetermined and thus cannot be predicted.” Likewise, I believe that by 2050 cities could evolve to a point that is beyond our imagination now. In broad strokes, it is likely that digital technologies will penetrate urban space more comprehensively and in tighter communication with each other. For example, different modes of transportation could be coordinated under a single platform (I like to call it “moving web”) which coordinates an elegant dance of self-driving trains, buses and personal vehicles.

We could all but eliminate red lights; a central computer would weave every vehicle through the intersection at high speeds, only stopping for pedestrians and bikers. People could float from one type of transportation to the next, and the city would be more accessible to explore than ever before. The city of bricks is 10,000 years old; the city of bits has only just entered the scene. As time goes on, the two are going to truly fuse with one another.

S: You are always drawn to reshaping physical space. Where does that come from?

CR: It comes from my belief that the spaces determine the shape of our social lives. We are increasingly living and working on the internet, but physical spaces have a key characteristic that digital ones do not: inevitability. In streets, subways and public spaces, everyone is bound to see everyone else – friends, strangers, all the diversity of the city. On the internet, you can filter away all but the narrowest of inputs. This is one of the hidden consequences of remote work.

When we replace offices with Zoom rooms, we keep our close friends but lose a wide network of professional acquaintances – the sociologist Mark Granovetter calls them “weak ties” – who are the most likely to expose us to new ideas. If we are going into the office less, we could offset the loss of facetime by redesigning our physical spaces – offices, co-working spaces, cafés and more – to maximise serendipitous encounters and weak-tie formation.

S: Let’s talk about World Expo 2030. What was your original motive to get involved in this project?

CR: World’s fairs, when they were first created 175 years ago, were mostly excuses for nationalistic showboating by the European colonial powers. This Old-World order is long gone, and the Internet and cheap global travel mean that Expos are no longer unique vehicles for disseminating ideas. We have no lack of venues to share and glare. So, when I got involved with the Expo Rome team, I saw a chance to not only bring the Expo to my country but also to reinvent the Expo for our century.

My design studio participated in the writing of Rome’s masterplan alongside the architect Italo Rota and the urbanist Ricky Burdett, and we wanted to give Expos a new purpose: as testbeds for architectural experimentation that would otherwise be too difficult or risky to explore in the existing built environment.

S: From the outside, I feel it is a bold, ambitious approach to use a temporary event to reinvent a neglected, run-down urban structure. Would you briefly describe the basic idea here?

CR: The masterplan is bent around the circular economy, transforming an event known for its temporary excess into a sustainable, permanent investment in the community. After the exhibition ends, every pavilion will be reused for new purposes. Throughout the fairground, we are building hundreds of tree-shaped solar harvesting structures across the Expo site. Together, they will make up the largest publicly accessible urban solar farm in the world. Beyond making the event fully energy self-sufficient, this energy infrastructure will serve the surrounding area of Tor Vergata, one of Rome’s poorer neighbourhoods, for years to come.

S: And why is it worthwhile to rethink existing, non-functioning quarters of a city in such a way that they participate in the long term?

CR: Cities are great because they are more than the sum of their parts. Segregation has the opposite effect, undercutting the benefits of human agglomeration, hindering overall economic development and compounding the injustices faced by marginalised communities. We need to incorporate every neighbourhood into the larger city, giving them access to city services and the opportunity to participate in the broader socioeconomic life of the place. In the years to come, as the vast majority of urban growth takes place in shanty towns outside cities in the Global South, devising the right strategies for neighbourhood reintegration will be more important than ever.

S: Architecture in the future is…?

CR: One of the deciding factors in the great fork in the road identified by Buckminster Fuller: “utopia or oblivion?” Architects must decide whether to dwell on aesthetic matters or vigorously confront the design challenges of climate change, human migrations and new technologies. We must decide whether to be lapdogs of powerful clients or vigorous activists for social and environmental justice. To refine pristine penthouses for the rich or to innovate new, high-quality housing for migrants and refugees. Architecture touches the future like nothing else; it is the future. The things we build today are the vessels that our descendants will inhabit tomorrow.

S: You leave your mark because…?

CR: I have contributed to making “smart” cities “senseable” – both in terms of “capable of sensing” environmental stimuli and “appealing to common sense.” Digital technology might make new headway every day but gains in our capabilities mean nothing if we cannot harness our new powers on behalf of everyone.

As featured in SLEEK 77 – TRUST. Available in print and digital here.