278. Carlo Ratti

278. Carlo Ratti

From Scratching the Surface by Jarrett Fuller

November 26, 2025 · 43 min

About this episode

Carlo Ratti discusses the themes of the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture and the concept of the senseable city compared to the smart city.

Carlo Ratti is an architect, engineer, author, and academic. He is the curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture, where he developed the theme Intelligens: Natural, Artificial, Collective. He runs the Senseable City Lab at MIT and is the author of multiple books including Atlas of the Senseable City, The City of Tomorrow, and Open Source Architecture. In this conversation, Jarrett and Carlo reflect on this year’s biennale, how architecture can act as a connector of multiple intelligences, and how the senseable city is different than the smart city. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/278-carlo-ratti — Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com

People in this episode

Host: Jarrett Fuller

Guest: Carlo Ratti

Topics covered

  • architecture
  • intelligences
  • senseable city
  • smart city
  • Venice Biennale
  • urban design

Keywords

  • Carlo Ratti
  • architecture
  • senseable city
  • smart city
  • Venice Biennale
  • urban design
  • MIT
  • intelligences

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MIT, Venice Biennale of Architecture

Books & works: Atlas of the Senseable City, The City of Tomorrow, Open Source Architecture

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