Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Carlo Ratti is posing next to a marble statue of a semi-naked Venus in the Ca\u2019 Giustinian, one of the last gothic palaces to be built in Venice in the late 15th century. Next he\u2019s outside the fancy Hotel Monaco, charming a gondolier into shot for our photographer. Ratti, the curator of this year\u2019s architecture biennale, the 19th to be held in Venice, seems more than happy to indulge in the clich\u00e9s of the city for a fun portrait.\u00a0\u201cYou could say it\u2019s one of the first geoengineering projects ever,\u201d says Ratti of the patchwork of land-spattered lagoon that human ingenuity formed into a city, as we settle on the terrace of the Hotel Monaco with an espresso. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t meant for human living.\u201d It is also an example of a place that has dealt with the damaging consequences of that human occupation \u2014 the ruinous effects of fishing and transport that have hollowed out the lagoon and threatened its marine and plantlife alongside the frequent invasion of acqua alta that floods its streets, squares and homes. \u201cThe Mose [Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico] has been built \u2014 a huge piece of engineering that works as a flood barrier \u2014 and it works and everyone is happy. People can occupy the ground floors of their buildings again.\u201dYou could say Venice is one of the first geoengineering projects ever. This wasn\u2019t meant for human livingThis is exactly the type of project Ratti is referring to when he talks about adaptation, which he does frequently. He is promising a biennale that will look at some of the crises to hand \u2014 climate change and depopulation \u2014 and how architecture can offer solutions by adapting itself to offset or accommodate these conditions. Historically, the architecture Biennale has had a tendency to reflect upon the state we\u2019re in; Ratti wants to offer ways to move forward in the face of intractable problems. \u201cUsually when people talk about climate change, they talk about mitigating harm in travel, industry, construction,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now it\u2019s too late for that. The ecological movement thought that adaptation was like surrender, and I understand that. But now it\u2019s inevitable. As things become more extreme, we need a new approach, a new level of thinking.\u201d Ratti speaks fast, in perfect English, though he grew up in Turin, the son of an engineer father. He is 53 but has an indefinable agelessness \u2014 his eyes keenly focused behind metal-rimmed glasses, his mind quick, theoretically and scientifically driven. He studied engineering and architecture at the Politecnico di Torino and the fancy Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chauss\u00e9es \u2014 one of those Paris institutions for the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me. He was swept off to Cambridge to complete an MPhil and then a PhD which he finished at MIT. It was at Cambridge, where he attended the Martin Centre, a research institution focused on sustainable buildings and cities, that he became aware of the value of integrating architecture, biology and just about everything else. \u201cCambridge inspires inter-disciplinarity, because of the college system,\u201d he says. \u201cYou end up being with people from any subject but your own. It breaks the bubble.\u201d\u00a0Ratti is applying this interdisciplinary approach to his Biennale, which is titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. \u201cI thought about calling it NI \u2014 Natural Intelligence,\u201d he says. \u201cBut then I decided that we need to learn from all three types of intelligence.\u201d The exhibition will fill\u00a07,000 sq m of the Arsenale, Venice\u2019s former shipyards and armouries. Ratti is also keen that the national pavilions will fall under his spell as well. These are dotted through Venice\u2019s Giardini, like a 19th-century view of the western world in miniature,\u00a0while newer arrivals (which this year include Oman and Togo) are to be found in the further reaches of the Arsenale and around the city. \u201cI met with the national participants four times,\u201d says Ratti, who has clearly worked exhaustively on the project with his small team.\u00a0\u201cThe national pavilions are often good, but a hodgepodge,\u201d he continues. He was part of the 2014 Biennale curated by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who famously forced countries to march to the beat of his thematic drum: Absorbing Modernity. It seems unlikely that Ratti will be able to orchestrate similar conformity. Many teams had embarked on their projects before his own theme emerged. Britain had already teamed up with Kenya, to focus on how to reverse the destruction brought about by the geological extraction exacted by colonial systems. The pavilion of the Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden) is looking at architecture through the lens of the trans body. Still, his subject \u2014 in the face of recent fires in LA and floods in Valencia and Bangladesh \u2014 will be on many participants\u2019 minds.Ratti was appointed to the directorship in December 2023, and the fact that he is the first Italian for years to take the role (the last was Massimiliano Fuksas, who directed with his wife Doriana in 2000) has been seen by some as the rightwing government\u2019s determination to Make the Biennale Italian Again and neutralise the event\u2019s perceived leftism. \u201cRatti doesn\u2019t talk about politics,\u201d says Dario Pappalardo, an editor at the left-leaning La Repubblica. \u201cBut his approach is technical, smart, new. It can seem cold in a way. But he\u2019s the most interesting of his generation coming from Italy, and he has an international career.\u201d\u00a0In fact, Ratti\u2019s range is vast. As well as heading up MIT\u2019s Senseable City Lab which he founded in 2004, he runs a busy architectural practice with offices in Turin, New York and London. He has worked on large buildings, introducing lush tropical nature to a 280m tower in Singapore designed with the Danish architects Big, while one of his personal hits is the Makr Shakr, a robotic cocktail dispenser which is a star turn on cruise ships. A project for Helsinki aims to help decarbonise the city\u2019s heating system by 2030 thanks to large floating islands that function as thermal batteries.\u00a0When it comes to the Biennale, though, he has some tough acts to follow. Alejandro Aravena, a Chilean architect with movie star looks and a fuzzy humanist agenda, created a highly empathetic show in 2016; and Lesley Lokko, a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator and novelist, delivered an intriguing and emotional edition in 2023 that turned the (western) world upside down and brought in protagonists from many previously unrepresented countries, particularly African ones. Ratti is unperturbed. \u201cInclusion has many dimensions,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have many different generations and disciplines involved; maybe the most female participants ever. [American architect] Jeanne Gang is even looking at animals, creating an architecture for them in and outside the Arsenale in which they can thrive.\u201dPerhaps unsurprisingly in his hands, even AI is given a positive role: ChatGPT is being used to create a series of imaginary conversations between living and historical figures that will be published in the Biennale\u2019s catalogue. \u201cIn one, the head of AI at MIT asks Isaac Asimov how we can be sure that robots won\u2019t hurt us,\u201d Ratti says gleefully. There\u2019s a switched-on quality to Ratti\u2019s wired but tidy mind. His own research underlines the value of real-time data and how it can improve city life. \u201cEven 20 years ago, we didn\u2019t have access to this level of real-time information,\u201d Ratti says. \u201cData allows us to understand the urban environment better and create real-time loops, real responses. It can turn a city into a living organism.\u201d And then he\u2019s off: Bologna, Paris, London, Milan and \u2014 after that \u2014 Osaka, where his firm has co-designed the French pavilion at Expo 25. He doesn\u2019t get jet lag, he says: \u201cIt\u2019s easy enough not to sleep.\u201dMay 10-November 23, labiennale.orgFind out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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