Architecture

Interesting Engineering reporter Saoirse Kerrigan spotlights a number of MIT research projects from the past decade. MIT has “long been a hub of innovation and ingenuity across multiple industries and disciplines,” writes Kerrigan. “Every year, the school’s best and brightest debut projects that push the boundaries of science and technology. From vehicles and furniture to exciting new breakthroughs in electricity generation, the school’s projects have tackled an impressive variety of subjects.” 

Chronicle spotlights Miguel Rosales SM '87 and his work developing over 12 bridges in Boston, including the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. “Boston is my city,” says Rosales. “I’ve been here over 40 years. How these bridges have changed so many parts of the city… that is very important in my life.” 

Writing for Bloomberg, Prof. Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale, describes his vision for the exhibition and explains how this year’s theme of adaptation connects to the future of architecture. “The planet has changed, and institutions must change too, especially those devoted to the built environment,” explains Ratti. “A biennale can become a tool for exploration, for collaboration, for reckoning. This doesn’t mean giving up on spectacle or beauty. But it does mean rethinking what we celebrate.” 

Architect reporter Blaine Brownell spotlights Prof. Caitlin Mueller’s work repurposing “discarded tree forks from urban forestry projects [and] repurposing the nodes as structural joints in hybrid reclaimed-engineered wood constructions.” Mueller and her team have “developed computer programs to catalog 3D scans of the tree forks as well as determine the appropriate cuts for their intended structural applications,” explains Brownell. “An algorithm matches prepared tree forks to three-dimensional intersections in the intended structural framework, streamlining the design process.” 

Diane Hoskins '79, global co-chair of architectural design firm Gensler, speaks with CNBC reporter Julia Boorstin after being named to the CNBC 2025 Changemakers list about “her path to success and lessons learned along the way.” “Solutions need to be framed by more than one discipline,” says Hoskins. “More people in our tech companies would benefit from having been in other domains, bringing more perspective to these tools across our daily lives.”

ArchDaily reporter Reyyan Dogan explores the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale with Prof. Carlo Ratti, this year’s curator. Dogan notes that “by fostering a forward-thinking dialogue on the intersection of architecture and global crises, the Biennale encourages both visitors and practitioners to think critically about the role of architecture in shaping the future.” Ratti explains that this year’s exhibit “is really about how architecture can bring together all different forms of intelligence, and bridge them, and actually help adapt to a changing climate.” 

Prof. Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Architecture Venice Biennale, speaks with Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou of Designboom about his vision for this year’s showcase, which centers around reimagining the role of intelligence in shaping the built environment. ‘It’s basically about how we can use different disciplines and different forms of intelligence in order to tackle the most important problem today: adaptation,” Ratti explains. “In short, you could say architecture is survival.”

Prof. Carlo Ratti, curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale, speaks with Archinect reporter Niall Patrick Walsh about his vision for the biennale as a “living laboratory from which ideas and research can emerge to guide the evolution of the built environment.” Says Ratti: “We are hoping to use the biennale to convey the message that architecture is about survival. Architecture is central to how we can move from climate mitigation to adaptation. If we can use the biennale as a way to reorient how we work and practice, that will be its most important legacy.”

Six MIT faculty members – Prof. Emerita Lotte Bailyn, Prof. Gareth McKinley, Prof. Nasser Rabbat, Prof. Susan Silbey, Prof. Anne Whiston Spirn, and Prof. Catherine Wolfram – have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, reports Sarah Mesdjian for The Boston Globe. “The academy aims to honor accomplished leaders in a wide array of fields and ‘cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people,’” explains Mesdjian. 

“AT MIT innovation ranges from awe-inspiring technology to down-to-earth creativity,” notes Chronicle during a visit to campus to peek behind the scenes at the innovations underway at the Institute. Classes taught by Prof. Erik Demaine are a “mix of rigorous math and creative collaboration,” host Anthony Everett explains, highlighting how Demaine’s work in computational origami has found its way into practical applications in such fields as medicine, architecture and space exploration. “I think origami provides a really powerful tool for making transformable shapes,” Demaine relates. 

Chronicle visits Prof. Skylar Tibbits and the Self-Assembly Lab to see how they are embedding intelligence into the materials around us, including furniture, clothing and buildings. Prof. Caitlin Mueller and graduate student Sandy Curth are digging into eco-friendly construction with programmable mud by “taking a low-cost material and a really fast manufacturing system to make buildings out of very, very low climate impact materials.” Says Tibbits: “MIT is a really wild place, and most people know of it for its technical expertise…But what I am really inspired by is on the creative end, the design spectrum. I think the mix of those two is super special.” He adds: “We can ask the right questions and discover new science, and we can also solve the right problems through engineering.”

MIT has been named among the top-performing intuitions in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024, reports The Economic Times. MIT ranks “first in 12 subjects, maintaining its stronghold in fields like engineering, technology, and computer science,” explains Economic Times. 

As part of MIT’s Artfinity festival - a new festival of the arts at MIT featuring 80 free performing and visual arts events, celebrating creativity and community – this month’s After Dark event on Thursday, March 13^th at the MIT Museum will be free and open to the public, reports Marianna Orozco for The Boston Globe. Attendees will be able to enjoy “a night of activities, including a ‘Flash Portrait’ drawing and textile design, as well as live DJ sets, open exhibits by faculty, and a talk from Behnaz Farahi, the interdisciplinary designer behind ‘Gaze to the Stars,’ which has brought the MIT dome to life,” explains Orozco. 

Diane Hoskins '79, a member of the MIT Corporation, has been named a CNBC Changemaker for her impact on the business world, reports Ian Thomas for CNBC. “Over her more than three-decade career at Gensler, she has risen up the firm’s ranks to now serve as its global co-chair alongside Andy Cohen, who Hoskins shares long-term strategy and day-to-day operations with and previously served as co-CEO with for nearly two decades,” writes Thomas. “Hoskins has also been at the center of the discussion around how workspace design intersects with employee performance and engagement, overseeing Gensler’s Workplace Survey and influencing how the industry at large designs offices and other spaces.” 

MIT’s Artfinity festival kicked off with a performance of “SONIC JUBILANCE” at the newly opened Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, reports Maddie Browning for WBUR. The campus-wide festival, which runs through May 2, is open to the public and features student, faculty and staff participation in “concerts, augmented reality experiences, exhibitions, films and more,” writes Browning. Artfinity is an opportunity "to show that the arts are very important and very central to the lives of people at MIT,” said Prof. Marcus Thompson, festival co-lead.