Michael Obrist [feld72] in conversation with Carlo Ratti, Curator of the Biennale Architettura 2025


Carlo Ratti
An architect and engineer by training, Professor Carlo Ratti teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the Politecnico di Milano. He is the director of the Senseable City Lab and a founding partner of the architecture and innovation office CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati (Torino, New York City, and London). Carlo graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later carried out his MPhil and PhD work at the University of Cambridge, UK - completing his PhD thesis as a Fulbright Scholar at MIT.
One of the top ten most-cited scholars in urban planning, Carlo co-authored over 750 publications, including the recent Atlas of the Senseable City (Yale University Press, with Antoine Picon). A presenter at TED, he regularly publishes opinion essays in international media, including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Project Syndicate, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, and El Pais. He serves as Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization.
Carlo’s curatorial experience spans projects in different countries. He has been a program director at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow, a curator of the BMW Guggenheim Pavilion in Berlin, and a curator of the Future Food District pavilion at Expo 2015 Milan. He was the chief curator of the 8th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen (UABB) in 2019, a co-curator of the second Porto Design Biennale in 2021, and the Creative Mediator responsible for the award-winning Urban Vision at the European Nomadic Biennale Manifesta 14 Prishtina in 2022.
Carlo’s work has been exhibited at venues including New York City's MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, La Biennale di Venezia (International Architecture Exhibitions), the Design Museum in Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, MAXXI in Rome. Three of his projects – the Digital Water Pavilion, the Copenhagen Wheel, and Scribit – have been included by TIMEMagazine in the list of the ‘Best Inventions of the Year’. Fast Company magazine hailed Carlo as one of the “Most Influential Designers in America,” and Blueprint Magazine listed him as one of its “People Who Will Change the World of Design.” Bloomberg dubbed him the “Sensory City Philosopher.”