Architect, engineer, designer and MIT professor Carlo Ratti was rated by Wired magazine as one of the 50 people who are changing our world. He plays a major role in Davos, including through his chairmanship of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Urban Management. He’s a regular visitor to South Africa and enjoys a close relationship with Cape Town in particular. In this interview with Biznews.com’s Alec Hogg he identifies a South African who is shaking up the urban planning world – and gives us a peek at the way cities will function in future.
Alec Hogg is with Carlo Ratti. Heâs one of the 50 people who are going to change the world, according to Wired Magazine. You do look like a designer. You look like an architect and an engineer, which you are and you work at MIT as well. How are you going to change the world, Carlo?
I didnât say that so they shouldnât really ask me but Iâm telling you how the world is going to change itself in nice way. What weâre looking at is really, this convergence of the digital and the physical world. This is radically changing the way we can understand the world, the way we can collect information from our cities through sensors and networks, etcetera. Let me say, a better knowledge of the environment around ourselves: hence, the ability to transform it in different ways.
Thereâs so much change happening with society anyway; the urbanisation and population. Is anyone getting it right at the point? For instance, China have built new cities. They appear to be more modern. Are they on the right track?
Youâre absolutely right. China is something we didnât expect perhaps a couple of decades ago. This century, China will probably build more urban fabric in all of humanity than has ever been built before. We do things so fast, we often end up in trouble. You have to constantly reassess what youâre doing. I think China is learning very quickly and I think China is jumping on this idea of smart cities/smarter cities. Again, about the convergence of digital and physical, about entering urban space in order to make sure the cities become places that are more efficient and more importantly, more sociable.
South Africaâs got its own challenges because of Apartheid. The majority of the people stay outside of cities in corridor townships. They have to transport (as the beginning of the problems). Youâve been to South Africa so youâve seen the situation there. Is there anything that strikes you as an âobviousâ to fix?
Firstly, let me say that I love South Africa. Iâve been there many times. We also have a small research club ratio with the Mayor of Cape Town and so weâve been going there. Some of researchers from MIT constantly go there and theyâve been working on a project together. What we think is that digital technologies today can also be a new way to connect people and connect different communities, and to make sure that what you see online⌠People can trust each other more because they put their face online. Youâve got the social networks and we think that could be a very important thing in South Africa: how you can reconnect all these different communities.
People living closer to places of work in central business districts: we are seeing this in parts of Africa but unfortunately, CBDâs are often rundown. Is there anything that can be done to uplift it?
Youâre right and itâs something that weâve seen in South Africa and all over the world. I think there are different ways to do it. One of the people I admire from this point of view is someone who is from South Africa â Rob Adams. Heâs the chief architect in Melbourne. In the Wake Address, this issue in Melbourne was in a very interesting way. Heâs credited for revitalising the CBD and bringing life back into the centre of Melbourne. The way he did it was that heâd taken a lesson that he learned at the University of Cape Town (probably in the sixties or seventies), which was that sometimes you donât need to expand your physical infrastructure. You need to build more real estate to accommodate the population. What you want to do is start thinking about how the same population can use the same real estate more effectively, and how different communities can actually overlap over time. By doing that, what youâre doing is creating a more sociable city in a city that has a high level of intensity.
Whatâs the city in the world outside of Melbourne (because youâve given us that example) thatâs really getting this right?
Again, I donât think you can pick just one city. I think that today we are seeing cities all across the world experimenting with this kind of smarter city ideas, but each of them is looking at different issues. Youâve got Singapore focusing a lot on mobility. Youâve got Copenhagen focusing primarily on sustainability. Youâve got Boston actually working on citizen participation so all of these are different ways to use new technologies in order to improve urban life. Theyâre looking at different dimensions and also starting from what the context says.
So thereâs lots to learn from. Is there any way we can invert whoâs not doing it right? What is a nightmare for you? What would you think is the biggest challenge?
I donât think there is one nightmare but sometimes, the nightmare is when people donât look around. They live in a world thatâs very interconnected, where information flows and I think the nightmare is when for example, people keep reinventing the wheel instead of looking at what others have been doing. One important thing (and thatâs what weâre seeing here at the World Economic Forum) at one of these venues is when people come together, they can share experiences. Thatâs what we are trying to do. Iâm chairing the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities. Thatâs what we are trying to do there as well, to promote the Forum in an exchange platform so that we can learn from each other. The nightmare is when we donât learn, donât look outside, and keep wasting energy and resources in reinventing the wheel.
Rather change. Love change. Embrace it and look at the future.
Yes, but we have to do it together.
Carlo Ratti is the Founder of Carlo Ratti Associati and Director of MIT Senseable City Lab.
