Carlo Ratti, the leading architect, engineer, inventor, educator and director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will present the ISE Opening Address. Ratti was named one of the ‘50 most influential designers in America’ by Fast Company and highlighted in Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List: 50 people who will change the world.’

At MIT, Ratti directs the Senseable City Lab, a research group that explores how new technologies are changing the way we understand, design and ultimately live in cities. He is also a founding partner of the international design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA). Drawing on Ratti’s research at MIT, CRA merges design and urban planning with cutting-edge digital technologies, so as to contribute to the creation of “an architecture that senses and responds”.

Significant achievements of the office include the masterplan for a creative hub in the City of Guadalajara, the Future Food District at Expo Milano 2015, the renovation of the Agnelli Foundation HQ in Turin and the Digital Water Pavilion at Expo Zaragoza 2008, with the latter named among the ‘Best Inventions of the Year’ by Time magazine. Product design projects range from experimental furniture for Cassina to light installations for Artemide and responsive seating systems with Vitra.

In each instance, Ratti’s studio investigated the ways in which new technologies, including digital sensors and portable devices, are changing both the built environment and everyday life. Projects from the studio have also been exhibited in cultural venues including the Venice Biennale, New York’s MoMA and the Istanbul Design Biennial.

Ratti was named one of the ‘50 most influential designers in America’ by Fast Company and highlighted in Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List: 50 people who will change the world.’