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WORKING FROM THE HIMALAYAS
International design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a digitally connected retreat in the Indian Himalayas that aims to promote more sustainable tourism patterns. The project stems from a collaborative, iterative design process with the local community.
The project is located on a south-facing mountain bound by a swift river and waterfalls, not far from Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. The black boulders that punctuate the site are incorporated into the design, which is split over stacked volumes connected by covered footbridges.
The complex includes residential, business, sport, and farming facilities. The houses, built with local materials like stone, farmed teak and sissoo, reinterpret the verandas and overhangs of the vernacular architecture, protecting residents from extreme rain and sun conditions.
“For the first time in history, it might be possible to locate on a mountain top and to maintain intimate, real-time, and realistic contact with business or other associates”, urban designer Melvin Webber famously wrote in the 1970s, as he tried to imagine how networks and digital technologies, still in their infancy, would impact our ways of living in the future.
Today, the Pankhasari retreat plays with that vision. “Though a mountain top might be a bit extreme to some, the Himalayan valley of Pankhasari is an ideal place for staying connected and testing new longer-term concepts of international living and working, trying to build a bridge between the local and the global communities.” said Carlo Ratti, professor at MIT in Cambridge and founding partner of Carlo Ratti Associati.
The project was developed in collaboration with Turin-based architect Michele Bonino and a team of over 20 professionals including local builders from the Himalayas. READ MORE
To access the press kit please go to carloratti.com/press (password: CRA)
More information is available upon request. Contact us at pr@carloratti.com
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Agnelli Foundation: follow the construction online
Starting this September, it will be possibile to follow the progress of the Agnelli Foundation building site in Torino, Italy, through a dedicated photogallery showing the construction process step-by-step. The redesign of the Agnelli Foundation's historical building aims to create a new workplace that naturally learns and is synchronized to its users’ needs, thus facilitating human interaction, optimizing space usage and limiting energy waste. The completed building will open in Spring, 2017.
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In West Palm Beach, Florida, CRA works with CRA
CRA is busy working on a masterplan concept for the Currie Park Development in West Palm Beach, Florida, collaborating with another CRA - the City Redevelopment Authority. The 17-hectare site is one of the largest areas to be developed in Town, with frontage on the intracoastal waterway and waterfront park named after poet, lawyer, developer and former mayor George G. Currie. Could it be an opportunity to explore some of the ideas outlined in our book "The City of Tomorrow" (Carlo Ratti | Matthew Claudel, YUP, 2016)?
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ARS ELECTRONICA
LINZ, AUSTRIA
9/11 SEPTEMBER 2016
This year Ars Electronica's theme is "Radical Atoms - and the alchemists of our time". Carlo will join MIT’s Hiroshi Ishii and others, exploring how radical atoms could make our cities increasingly ‘senseable’.
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FOUNDERS FORUM
NEW YORK, USA
21 SEPTEMBER 2016
Carlo will speak at New York’s 2016 gathering of the Founders Forum – a global network that brings together digital entrepreneurs, CEOs and senior investors to engage in open debate.
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BBC
/ 29 AUGUST 2016
Interviewed by tech news programme Click on BBC radio, Carlo talks about CRA's work for Eataly at FICO - the new food theme park under construction in Bologna - exploring how to turn everyone into an organic farmer. |
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La Repubblica
/ 25 AUGUST 2016
Following the recent earthquake in central Italy, Carlo draws on CRA's previous work with the Renzo Piano Foundation to single out some lessons for the Italian Government on emergency architecture and seismic design. |
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El Pais et al.
/ 16 AUGUST 2016
"Today, conspicuous consumption, which defined much of 20th century material culture, is at a turning point" write Carlo and Richard Sennet in an editorial for El Pais, Welt am Sonntag, Corriere della Sera and La Tribune.
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Project Syndicate
/ 16 AUGUST 2016
"Decentralized decision-making is crucial for the enrichment of society. What's the "Hidden Danger of Big Data" and how could we avoid it? Carlo and Dirk Helbing discuss this question in an article for Project Syndicate.
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Techonomy
/ 17 AUGUST 2016
"Without Design, Innovation Doesn't Happen", recently stated MoMa Design Curator Paola Antonelli in Techonomy. Carlo builds on that idea suggesting that designers should think about themselves as mutagens for society.
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Wired
/ 26 AUGUST 2016
"Ratti is studying waste to understand everything from heroin use to antibiotic-resistant bacteria—and all with the help of a sewer-slurping robot named Luigi." Wired explores the Underworlds project by the Senseable City Lab.
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CRA is hiring! We are looking for amazing architects, engineers, human-interaction designers and business developers to join our multidisciplinary teams in Torino, Italy and Boston, USA. Please send your CV, cover letter, and portfolio to jobs@carloratti.com indicating the job title in the subject line. We are looking forward to working with you!
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