{"id":527745,"date":"2018-05-15T12:58:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T12:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=527745"},"modified":"2020-10-24T16:20:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T16:20:11","slug":"a-new-babylon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/thought-leaders-interviews\/a-new-babylon.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Babylon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"carlo-ratti-mit\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Senseable city, more than a \u201csmart city\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carlo Ratti <\/strong>is an architect and a town planning globe trotter. For him, inventing the city of the future is a passion<\/strong>,\n and not just a profession. A city that is increasingly intelligent, and\n capable of fully integrating the digital revolution into its \ninfrastructure, and into daily life. This is why he decided to create \nthe Senseable City Lab in 2004, at the Massachusetts Institute of \nTechnology, of which he is Co-Director. He studied Engineering at \nTurin’s Polytechnic University, and at the Ecole des Ponts in Paris. \nSubsequently, he studied Architecture and Information Technology at \nCambridge, in England. It is at the MIT, where he enters with a \nFulbright scholarship, that he is \u201ccaptivated by an interest for new \ntechnology,\u201d because not only does it promise \u00abto provide exciting \ntransformations in the communication, transport and production \ntechniques field\u00bb, but it also stirs \u00aba new concept of town planning and\n urban analysis, right at the juncture where the physical world meets \nthe digital one\u00bb, he said. An idea expressed through its own language, \nthrough semantics of innovation: the “Senseable City.” Beyond the smart city concept. <\/strong>To paraphrase Ratti’s words,\u00abthe more human this city is<\/strong>, capable of sensing through digital sensors, the more it can meet its citizens’ needs<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/strong> This new type of city is make possible thanks to \u00abcontinuous use of digital technologies <\/strong>and of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT)<\/strong>,\n both in our lives and within our city spaces, which began some twenty \nyears ago, and is destined to intensify during the following years. This\n allows us to find new solutions to old problems: from mobility with \ndriver-less cars, to energy consumption, water and pollution issues, \nwaste disposal and citizen participation\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital technology at the service of cities: the Internet of the Streets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is an urban reality where asphalt and concrete are now often increasingly merged with silicon. \u00abI believe that digital technology can help to make the physical and material world function in a better way<\/strong>\u00bb,\n he explained. But what does a reality made with so many intelligent \ninfrastructure mean? \u00abThrough the CRA (Carlo Ratti Associati) firm, we \npresented our concept for the Smart Road system<\/strong>, which \nANAS aims at implementing in the following years on Italian roads and \nhighways\u00bb, he said. \u00abWe wanted to make the most of the potential offered\n by digital technology, to combine digital and physical infrastructure, \naiming at collecting more precise data on the actual conditions of \nItalian highways\u00bb.
\nThat project specifically calls for the new infrastructure to \u00abrevolve \naround a series of poles incorporating WI-FI in-motion technology \nsensors and services. On each of these poles, there will be a charging \nstation where drones can take off and start their road monitoring \nactivities. The system, thanks to the data collected by these poles, can\n provide real-time information to drivers on actual road conditions. \nDirect and custom messages can be sent to each driver’s mobile phone or \nto the car map navigation system of each vehicle\u00bb. But the project \n\u201cconcept\u201d doesn’t end here. \u00abThe subsequent phase will include merging \nthe data processed by the road system, with the information that has \nalready been collected from each car. This will create what could be \ncalled \u2018the Internet of the Road<\/strong>.\u2019 This scenario will start to become reality during the following years, when driver-less cars will begin to be the norm\u00bb.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart cities for a more sustainable future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Future innovations continue, said Ratti: among new research, there’s a \u00abproject <\/strong>to define criteria capable of measuring ethnic and social segregation in different parts of the world<\/strong>\u00bb.\n The objective is to \u00abmerge data concerning costs in certain \nneighborhoods with data concerning phone calls between people belonging \nto different social groups. The central idea is to understand how \ndifferent cities can heal social breaches, and how we can learn from \ncities offering more positive results\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"aeroporto-changi–singapore\"
Changi Airport, Singapore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The path heading towards tomorrow’s cities is not a uniform one, in \nglobal terms. No city is advancing in every area, said Ratti – but \nexperiments are being shared and are multiplying. \u00abIn Asia, Singapore has become a large driverless mobility lab<\/strong>.\n It is also the first city in the world that introduced electronic road \npricing, a payment system for infrastructure use, which aims at managing\n traffic congestion. Boston, in the United States, since 2010, through \nthe Mayor’s new Office of New Urban Mechanics, aims at transforming \ncitizens in city “drivers”: inviting them to participate in experiments \nfor improving the quality of life, education and for enhancing public \nspirit, while also always including service networks and infrastructure.\n Europe’s Copenhagen has, instead, greatly focused on sustainability<\/strong>. It wants to become the first large \u2018carbon neutral\u2019 city, with zero emissions by 2025\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leapfrogging and futurecraft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cities of the developed world are not the only ones appointed to this\n main role for this transformation process. \u00abLet’s talk about \nleapfrogging\u00bb, explained Ratti. \u00abIt\u2019s one of the key words for \nunderstanding technological and social evolution in different developing\n countries, beginning from the African continent. This phenomenon allows\n those \u2018left behind\u2019 countries to leap ahead of current leaders. \nSmartphones are the classic example: most African countries avoided cabled connection and directly used wireless technology. <\/strong>Smartphones\n are also often used in new, ingenious ways that are more sophisticated \ncompared to how they are being used in Europe or in the United States\u00bb.
\nThis science of “possible cities” <\/strong>includes a method that helps their invention. It is called \u201cfuturecraft<\/strong>,\u201d\n and is defined as a symbiotic development of ideas for cities made by \nboth designers and the public. Ratti described it as a method \u00abthat \nhelps to bring up questions about the future, not to predict it, but to \ntry and build it\u00bb. This can be summarized in a single question: What \nwould happen if?
\nRatti summed up by saying: \u00abIf we do accept this evolutionary vision, a \nfundamental question arises, which is: how can a designer accelerate \nchanges in the artificial world? In continuing this biological analogy, \nthe designer’s role could produce \u2018anomalies\u2019 (as new ideas). He would \nthen become what in Biology is called a mutagenic – an agent causing \nmutation. In Nature, mutations are casual, while in the artificial \nworld, it is futurecraft that guides them\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new \u201copensource\u201d approach applied to architecture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This design of the future also sees a change to how architecture is conceived. Ratti<\/strong>, in fact, stated that a new “opensource<\/strong>”\n approach is now the norm, because since the Internet was created the \nway designing is carried out has changed. It is now more participative. \nThe architect-hero model, so common during the last century, has now \nbeen abandoned. Ratti <\/strong>is already imagining \u00abopen source projects, which can be worked on by many people, with the contribution of end users<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/strong>\n A totally new professional figure could result from these experiments: \n\u00abA less ego-oriented Architect who dedicates himself\/herself to \norchestrating the actual project. An orchestra director capable of \nuniting voices, a coral architect, one who harmonizes\u00bb.
\nRatti<\/strong>, despite having the future as companion, doesn’t \nlike to predict it. And he doesn’t provide directions to what his ideal \ncity would be. This, in any case, doesn’t mean that imagination and \ndesign are lacking in any way. \u00abI like to imagine our new future like a New Babylon<\/strong>, the magnificent urban utopia<\/strong> on which Constant worked for two decades during, approximately, the middle of the 20th <\/sup>century\u00bb.\n Ratti’s dream is, in fact, to contribute to reaching closer to the homo\n ludens model,  \u00abalways on the move, playing in an open city: the \nworld\u00bb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senseable city, more than a \u201csmart city\u201d Carlo Ratti is an architect and a town planning globe trotter. For him, inventing the city of the future is a passion, and not just a profession. A city that is increasingly intelligent, and capable of fully integrating the digital revolution into its infrastructure, and into daily life. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":136448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[19017,19016,12217],"yst_prominent_words":[59,15656,15671,15655,15670,15667,15658,15661,15668,15659,314,205,15657,56,15666,3947,15660,15669,3954,187],"class_list":["post-527745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leaders-interviews","tag-city-of-tomorrow","tag-demographic-boom-and-megacities","tag-sustainable-development"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527745"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541979,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527745\/revisions\/541979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527745"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=527745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}