{"id":687233,"date":"2026-05-22T11:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:42:12","slug":"ma-yansong-carlo-ratti-and-stefano-boeri-on-designing-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687233\/","title":{"rendered":"ma yansong, carlo ratti, and stefano boeri on designing the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

ma yansong, carlo ratti, and stefano boeri share stage in milan<\/p>\n

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\u2018The dream becomes true because someone already saw your dream and shared it.\u2019 Set against the backdrop of designboom\u2019s ROOM FOR DREAMS<\/a>\u00a0during\u00a0Milan Design Week 2026<\/a>, three of the world\u2019s most influential architectural visionaries \u2013 Stefano Boeri<\/a>, Carlo Ratti<\/a>, and Ma Yansong<\/a> \u2013 gathered to discuss dream projections with designboom\u2019s Managing Editor Claire Brodka. As leaders in urban forestry, smart-city technology, and organic urbanism, the architects shared a stage together for the very first time to explore how their discipline can move beyond static construction to become a proactive force, designing the future before it actually arrives.<\/p>\n

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The words Ma Yansong uses to kick off the discussion set the tone and hint at the consensus of architecture as a \u2018self-fulfilling prophecy\u2019. Stefano Boeri, the founding partner of Stefano Boeri Architetti, has spent decades proving that cities can breathe through his \u2018Bosco Verticale\u2019 prototypes. Carlo Ratti, who leads his eponymous practice as well as the Senseable City Lab at MIT<\/a>, has redefined the city as a living network of data and human interaction.Yansong, the principal of MAD Architects<\/a> and Guest Editor of Domus 2026, has consistently pushed for an architecture that feels like a landscape of the soul. Together, they represent a unified front against the stagnation of traditional urban planning.<\/p>\n

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claire brodka, ma yasong, carlo ratti, and stefano boeri on stage | all images \u00a9 designboom, photography by Camilla Mansini with Giorgio Gagliano<\/p>\n

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room for dreams panel reframes Architecture as projection<\/p>\n

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The dialogue began with a fundamental deconstruction of architectural timing. In a world characterized by rapid climate shifts and technological acceleration, the participants argued that architecture must function as a predictive tool rather than a mere materialization of the current moment. Carlo Ratti opened the discussion by suggesting that the \u2018dream\u2019 is no longer a nebulous concept but a data-driven imperative. \u2018Designing the future is no longer about a fixed masterplan,\u2019 Ratti noted. \u2018It is about projecting a series of possibilities\u2014dreaming with data to create spaces that learn and evolve. We are moving toward a senseable architecture that reacts to our presence before we even realize we need it. Technology allows us to dream in real-time, creating feedback loops between citizens and their city that were previously impossible.\u2019 Ratti\u2019s perspective reframes the architect as a facilitator of a living system, where the \u2018dream\u2019 is a constantly updated projection of human and machine needs. \u2018This passage between impossibility, plausibility, and possibility is very interesting.\u2018 To make dreams real, he argues, architects must \u2018funnel imagination into a grid of rules.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Ma Yansong expanded on this by focusing on the emotional agency of space, aligning with the concept of buildings as \u2018active participants\u2019 in our trajectory. For Yansong, the projection is not just technical but deeply spiritual. \u2018We realize that a building must be a vessel for the human spirit,\u2019 he explained. \u2018To design the future, we must project our internal landscapes onto the city. We are not just building machines for living; we are building dream machines that carry our cultural and emotional history into the next century. If the architecture does not dream, the people living within it will lose their ability to do so as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018If the architecture does not dream, the people living within it will lose their ability to do so as well\u2019<\/p>\n

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speakers highlight ECOLOGICAL TRAJECTORY AND NON-HUMAN AGENCY<\/p>\n

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The conversation shifted toward the agency of the non-human, an essential pillar of the ROOM FOR DREAMS concept. Stefano Boeri brought the focus to the biological necessity of architectural dreaming, arguing that the most urgent \u2018dream projection\u2019 is the total reforestation of the urban world. He reframed the building not as a shelter for humans, but as an active ecological carrier. \u2018We are projecting a future where the city is a forest,\u2019 Boeri stated. \u2018Our buildings must act as active participants in the planet\u2019s survival by giving the trees and the air a seat at the design table. In the Bosco Verticale, the dream was to prove that biodiversity is not an ornament, but a requirement for urban life. When we project these green dreams, we are acknowledging that the non-human\u2014the plants, the insects, the birds\u2014has a trajectory and a desire that we must respect and integrate.\u2019<\/p>\n

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This post-human imagination was a recurring theme. The architects agreed that the ego of the \u2018Master Architect\u2019 must be replaced by the \u2018Facilitator of Ecosystems\u2019. Ratti added to this by noting, \u2018The dream is not just the building; it is the infrastructure that allows the ecosystem to thrive. When we use sensors to monitor the health of a vertical forest, we are eavesdropping on the dreams of the trees. Through this, we are turning the present of our cities or our buildings into something hopefully better\u2026 turning the present into what it ought to be.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Boeri Studio\u2019s Bosco Verticale in Milan | image courtesy of Boeri Studio, photography by Dimitar Harizanov<\/p>\n

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highlighting design empathy and material<\/p>\n

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As the panel progressed, the discussion turned toward the materials themselves. If we decenter the human, what happens to the steel, the concrete, and the timber? Ma Yansong proposed that materials carry an inherent \u2018desire\u2019 to return to organic forms. \u2018The future arrives when our materials stop pretending to be static,\u2019 Yansong explained. \u2018In our work, we try to let the material follow its own trajectory, to look like it was shaped by wind or water rather than a blueprint. This is how we project a future that feels natural even if it is highly engineered.\u2019 Boeri concurred, noting that the \u2018desire\u2019 of a material in an emotional carrier is to sustain life. \u2018The agency of the material is found in its ability to CO2-absorb, to provide shade, to cool the air. When we project these functions into our designs, we are aligning human dreams with the biological reality of the planet.\u2019<\/p>\n

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As Ratti expands on his work with the Senseable City Lab, modern design is exploring \u2018polyamory\u2019 in the home\u2014integrating nature, animals, and bacteria into human habitats. This requires empathy: \u2018To put your eye in the eyes of the other living species that are cohabiting with you.\u2019\u00a0The takeaway of the conversation lies in its refusal to accept the status quo. While their methods differ\u2014Ratti through data, Boeri through biology, and Yansong through spiritual form\u2014their goal is the same. By treating architecture as a vessel for both human and non-human dreams, Boeri, Ratti, and Yansong provide a roadmap for a future that is not just built, but projected through empathy and ecological agency.<\/p>\n

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Carlo Ratti Associati and BIG teamed up for CapitaSpring in Singapore | image by Finbarr Fallon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ma yansong, carlo ratti, and stefano boeri share stage in milan \u00a0 \u2018The dream becomes true because someone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[29062,449,458,459,64,63,26668,460,134,62492,232331,68886,307338,271516],"class_list":["post-687233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture-interviews","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carlo-ratti","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-mad-architects","tag-milan-design-week-2026","tag-mit-news","tag-room-for-dreams","tag-stefano-boeri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}