Design

Dezeen’s Ellen Eberhardt describes how the renovation of the historic Metropolitan Warehouse, the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, maintains “details such as the building's fortress-like corner towers and crenellated corbeled cornices, while punching new windows into its two-foot-thick walls.” Eberhardt highlights how “the project included careful ‘cutting strategies’ and the application of new support systems to shift existing loads within the building to make room for modern academic spaces such as studios and makerspaces.”  

For The Architect’s Newspaper, reporter Fred A. Bernstein details the renovation of the Metropolitan Warehouse, the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, transforming the fortress-like storage warehouse into “light-filled classrooms and studios.” The building is “going to be a living laboratory and a teaching tool for generations of students,” shares Prof. John Ochsendorf. “Twenty years ago, MIT took me inside and asked if I could see a way to reuse the building. And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ It was hard to imagine it could be as open and light-filled as it is. That took heroics.” 

In a “radical example of adaptive reuse” and a reimagining of a historic Cambridge landmark, MIT has transformed the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse into the new home of the School of Architecture and Planning, bringing together MIT’s architecture and design programs into one connected academic hub, reports Boston Business Journal reporter Maya Shavit. “There will be new installations and new manifestations of our students’ creativity every single week,” explains Prof. John Ochsendorf. “That’s unpredictable and messy, but it’s also part of the fun of being at a place like MIT where people are constantly inventing the future.”

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Prof. Carlo Ratti and contributor Mario Carpo make the case that AI is built to imitate human creativity and is less capable of original design. “In a profession that defines itself through invention, GenAI increasingly is seen less as a creative genius and more as a ‘stochastic parrot’ — a term introduced in 2021 by leading AI researchers to describe a technology that learns to repeat the most likely sequences found in whatever data it’s been shown,” write Ratti and Carpo. 

Mel Robbins visits the MIT AgeLab and tries out the lab’s Age Gain Now Empathy System (AGNES) suit, which is designed to help wearers experience the challenges associated with aging. “When we think about aging, most people don’t really have a definition of it. They think about it as a number of birthdays—that's older,” says Joseph Coughlin, AgeLab director. “Actually, aging is about diminishing capacity over time. So weightlifting is increasing your capacity—you're pushing out the clock. Learning something new keeps you cognitively well.” 

Graduate students Alfonso Parra Rubio and Erik Strand from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms worked with the Boston Public Library and the Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture to create a chain-like aluminum sculpture, which will be on display at the library until November, writes Axios’ Steph Solis. “It's a feat of science-driven design and art,” notes Solis.  

MIT researchers have created a new building design model that could enable engineers to construct buildings and bridges that use less materials, writes Tech Briefs’ Andrew Corselli. “Traditional topology optimization essentially starts with a blank space and tries to figure out at each point in this blank space: ‘Should there be material,’ ‘should there not be material’ from an efficiency standpoint,” says Prof. Josephine Carstensen. “Our approach populates the space with a bunch of lines that are instead candidates for ‘should there be material’ or ‘should there not be material.’ By using this line approach, we have the opportunity to have more control.” 

WBUR’s Amelia Mason highlights the MIT Museum’s acquisition of the project archives of renowned architect I.M. Pei ’40, which includes details from some of Pei’s most famous works, such as the Louvre’s glass pyramid and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. “ It's an exciting moment for MIT,” says Jonathan Duval, MIT Museum assistant curator of architecture. “I.M. Pei's archive really belongs here. This is where he started his architectural career and education. It’s a homecoming.”

In the first installment of his Wallpaper series on ordinary objects that define daily life, Prof. Carlo Ratti describes the origins of the mosquito coil, a spiral shaped insect repellent, and its cultural significance as a ‘zampirone,’ during Italian summers. Named after its 19^th century creator Giovanni Battista Zampironi, the zampirone represents “typically Italian technology: the technology of compromise,” writes Ratti. “We might also say that the zampirone is a typically Italian technology: the technology of compromise. It does not build a barrier, but creates a temporary condition of habitability.”

Yuly Fuentes-Medel of the MIT Climate Project speaks with GBH Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about her work focused on improving sustainability in the footwear industry, and making running shoes more eco-friendly. 

Researchers at MIT have developed an “AI-driven optimization method that works like ‘ChatGPT for spreadsheets’ – a tabular foundation model designed to handle spreadsheet-style data common in engineering design problems,” reports Gene Marks for Forbes. “The AI system identifies which design variables matter most and focuses search efforts on those, making problem solving less cumbersome,” writes Marks. 

Prof. Carlo Ratti speaks with Matt Fortin of NBC Boston about his work designing this year’s Olympic torch. “For us it’s very exciting to do this,” says Ratti, “because it’s a way you can actually push design beyond what you normally do.”

The torch for this year’s Winter Olympics was designed by Prof. Carlo Ratti, reports Laura Baisas for Popular Science. Dubbed “Essential,” the torch clocks in at just under 2.5 pounds, and "boasts a unique internal mechanism that can be seen through a vertical opening along its side. This means that audiences can peek inside and see the burner in action. From a design perspective, that reinforces Ratti’s desire to keep the emphasis on the flame itself and not the object.”

Researchers at MIT have “found a way to transform a flat sheet into a functional 3D object with a single pull of a string,” reports Luis Prada for Vice. “The team developed a computational method that lets users design three-dimensional objects that can be fabricated as flat grids and then deployed almost instantly with a single tug,” explains Prada. 

The Wall Street Journal features reporter Amy Dockser Marcus’ visit to the MIT AgeLab and her time using the AGNES age-simulation suit on the The Future of Everything’s Best of 2025 list, reports Conor Grant for The Wall Street Journal. Grant highlights Marcus’ newfound awareness “of challenges faced by the elderly – and a new motivation to prepare for old age.”