Carlo Ratti Associati

CURA took just weeks to turn from a conceptual idea to a prototype ICU that's currently installed in Turin, one of Italy's hardest-hit areas during the COVID-19 pandemic

Architecture

Shipping container-based ICU goes from concept to hospital in weeks

We recently reported on a plan to use shipping containers to create ICUs to aid in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. A few weeks later, the conceptual design has been turned into a prototype unit installed in a temporary hospital in Turin, Italy.

The first CURA prototype is currently being constructed in Milan

Architecture

Shipping container-based ICU being developed for COVID-19 treatment

We’ve reported on shipping containers being used for lots of different projects, but CURA is an example that could save lives. It involves transforming the metal boxes into easily transportable intensive care units to treat patients with COVID-19.

The Feel the Peel juice kiosk will be travelling across Italy over the next few months

Good Thinking

Juice kiosk creates cups from its own orange peels

A new juice kiosk recycles its own orange peels into the cups used by the customers.

Each drone was equipped with a paint tank and a spray nozzle

Drones

Swarm of drones spray-paints crowdsourced graffiti mural

A couple of years ago, design firm Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) unveiled Paint By Drone, a system that utilizes quadcopters to spray-paint artistic graffiti onto outdoor walls. Well, the tech has now been used to create a crowdsourced work of art, applied to a wall by multiple drones simultaneously.

Construction of Vitae will begin later this year

Architecture

Mixed-use office building brings a little countryside to the city

Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) is planning to bring something of the Italian countryside to inner-city Milan with its Vitae project. The eye-catching building will host research facilities, offices and a restaurant, and will be covered in greenery, including a vineyard.

Users will be able to hail the Guido vehicle, and order their drinks, using an app

Robotics

Robotic bar could soon be hailed like a drink-making cab

It was six years ago that we first heard about Makr Shakr, a robotic bar that can reportedly mix one Googol (the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes) drink combinations. Now, its designers are planning on installing the tech in an autonomous vehicle that users can hail whenever they want a bevvy.

Scribit will be the subject of an upcoming crowdfunding campaign

Robotics

Scribit robot could soon be drawing on your walls

A couple of years ago, design firm Carlo Ratti Associati showcased a system in which drones were used to draw images on walls. It was very clever, but perhaps not something that could become a commercial product. The company's Scribit wall-drawing robot, however, is intended to be just that.

The unnamed skyscraper will rise to a height of 280 m (918 ft)

Architecture

Singapore skyscraper will burst at the seams with greenery

Italy's Carlo Ratti Associates (CRA) and Danish firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have collaborated on an interesting new skyscraper currently under construction in Singapore. Rising to 280 m (918 ft) the building will be jam-packed with greenery, and feature trees jutting out of its facade.

Construction is expected to begin next year, with completion slated for 2023

Architecture

Tomato factory to feature walls made from glass tomato sauce jars

Carlo Ratti Associati has taken a novel approach to designing a new factory for Italian tomato firm Mutti. It features a visitor's center with walls made from glass tomato sauce jars – tomatotecture, if you will – as well as a terrace allowing the public to watch the tomatoes being processed.

Drones

Swarms of graffiti drones to be unleashed on blank walls

Artists and vandals have been attaching spray-paint cans to drones with varying degrees of success for several years now but what if whole swarms of drones could be controlled in a coordinated way to paint colorful designs on the many bare construction facades that fill our cities?

The Currie Park floating plaza will be mounted on a system of responsive air chambers that will take in and expel air based on the number of people walking on the platform

Architecture

Floating plaza to make a splash in Florida

Visitors to West Palm Beach's Currie Park in Florida will soon be able to stroll around a plaza that's home to a restaurant, an auditorium, decorative water pools and hydroponically-grown greenery. What makes it unique, though, is that it will be floating off the coast using submarine technology.