Architecture

MIT has ranked first in 11 different academic fields in the latest QS World University Rankings, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.

Prof. Nicholas de Monchaux speaks with New York Times reporter Vanessa Friedman about NASA’s newest spacesuit. The suit is “the costume for the drama we project into space,” says Monchaux. “[The way we] put ourselves into the heavens.” 

New York Times reporter Siobhan Roberts spotlights the work of Jessica Rosenkrantz ’05 and her husband Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, who create laser-cut, wooden jigsaw puzzles inspired by natural forms. “Inspired by how shapes and forms emerge in nature, they write custom software to ‘grow’ intertwining puzzle pieces,” writes Roberts. “Their signature puzzle cuts have names like dendrite, amoeba, maze and wave.”

Prof. Mary Anne Ocampo speaks with Madame Architect reporter Gail Kutac about what inspired her passion for architecture and urban planning, and her advice for new designers. “The impact I would like to have in this world is creating strong collaborations that promote inclusive and resilient design visions,” says Ocampo. “To me, there’s this combination of understanding design as a process, and design as a commitment that helps us to recognize the ways we value our environment and people.” 

Writing for Times Higher Ed, Prof. Andres Sevtsuk explores how campus design can boost communication and exchange between researchers. “Low-rise, high-density buildings with interconnected walkways and shared public spaces are more likely to maximize encounters,” writes Sevtsuk. “In colder climates, having indoor walking paths between buildings can help ensure that encounters continue during colder parts of the year.”

MIT’s Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) has created an architectural installation for the Mextrópoli Architecture and City Festival in Mexico City, reports Josh Niland for Archinect. The installation titled Sueños con Fiber/Timber, Earth/Concrete utilizes “the school’s recent innovations in materials research to weave a narrative about the centuries-old capital through four materials: paper, wood, earth, and concrete,” writes Niland.

Prof. Miho Mazereeuw speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Lindsay Ellis about courses she is teaching at MIT focused on environmental risk and disaster-resilient design. During her course last semester, “students weighed how to build environments that can cope with a changing climate as well as the social inequities that disasters reveal,” writes Ellis.

Writing for Metropolis, James McCown highlights the architecture of the new MIT buildings in Kendall Square, particularly the property at 314 Main Street, which houses the new MIT Press Bookstore and MIT Museum. “To walk across the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is to get a crash course in 20th and early 21st-century architecture,” writes McCown. “Who wouldn’t want to add their signature to this splendid architectural canvas?”

The Economist spotlights how Prof. Carlo Ratti and researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab are working on revitalizing neglected spaces in Kosovo’s capital. “We wanted to start something that could continue in the long term: small interventions that, little by little, could become part of the city,” says Ratti.

Professor Carlo Ratti participated in this year’s Manifesta 14 in Kosovo, where “artists show how they want to reconquer their city from traffic and big capital,” reports Sandra Smallenburg for NRC. “Together with students from the University of Pristina, he reclaimed the outdoor space by simply painting it with yellow paint and delimiting it with garden furniture,” said Smallenburg.

Professor Carlo Ratti and his colleagues developed the Urban Vision and Urban Program for Manifesta 14, a nomadic European biennale in Kosovo, which “proposes a new methodology for reclaiming public space in the city,” writes Maria-Cristina Florian for ArchDaily. “Cities around the world are currently going through an extraordinary time marked by crises but also potential for a renaissance,” said Ratti.

MIT scientists have used custom software and maple plywood to create “The Cosmic Cliffs Infinite Galaxy Puzzle” based on the newfound images from the James Webb Space Telescope, reports Elissaveta M. Brandon for Fast Company. The 264-count puzzle contains “squiggly pieces that can be reconfigured in endless ways” writes Brandon.

Tiffany Chu ’10, chief of staff for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, speaks with columnist Jeneé Osterheldt for The Boston Globe’s “A Beautiful Resistance” series about her goals for creating a more inclusive Boston and her AAPI heritage. Chu explains that she believes in “knocking down walls and showing people what is possible." 

A new study by MIT researchers examines how different spaces such as cafeterias can help foster collaboration on academic campuses, reports Paul Basken for Times Higher Ed. “The method affirms expectations that colleagues working physically nearer to each other are more likely to find each other, and that the odds of connection are higher between locations with indoor pathways,” writes Basken.

Neri Oxman, founder and former director of the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab, speaks with Wall Street Journal about how the work she started at MIT can impact the future of urban architecture. “As part of our research at MIT, we 3D-printed glass augmented with synthetically engineered microorganisms to produce energy [from the sun],” said Oxman. “This allows us to develop solar-harnessing glass façades that can act as a skin for pre-existing buildings.”