CARLORATTIASSOCIATI S.R.L.

Their core work

Carlo Ratti Associati is a Torino-based architecture and urban design studio that brings built-environment expertise into EU research consortia. Their H2020 work spans two distinct domains: climate-responsive urban design — including facade systems, building materials, vegetation strategies, and microclimate modelling — and participation in large-scale European data infrastructure for social analytics. They contribute design thinking and physical environment knowledge to multidisciplinary research teams rather than leading technical development themselves. The studio operates at the intersection of architecture and data, making them an unusual and cross-domain partner in European research networks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 project (SOLOCLIM, 2019) was firmly anchored in the physical built environment — urban climate, microclimate, facade design, materials, and vegetation. Their second project (SoBigData++, 2020) shifted dramatically toward digital infrastructure: big data platforms, social mining, open science, and research ethics. The two projects run concurrently, so this is not a clean handover but rather a deliberate broadening — the studio appears to be layering data-driven capabilities onto its design identity rather than abandoning one for the other.

The studio is actively bridging physical design expertise with digital data capabilities — future collaborations in smart cities, urban digital twins, or climate data platforms would fit their emerging direction well.

How they like to work

Carlo Ratti Associati has participated exclusively as a partner, never taking on the coordinator role across either H2020 project. With 37 unique consortium partners across just two projects, they work inside large, diverse research networks — averaging roughly 18-19 partners per project — rather than tight bilateral arrangements. This profile suggests they are brought into consortia for their specific design or urban expertise, not for project management capacity, and that they are comfortable operating as a specialist contributor within complex, multi-country teams.

Despite only two H2020 projects, the studio has engaged with 37 unique partners across 15 countries — an unusually broad network that reflects the large consortium structures of the RIA and MSCA-ITN schemes they have joined. No pronounced geographic concentration is visible from the data.

What sets them apart

What sets Carlo Ratti Associati apart is the rare combination of architectural design practice and active EU research participation — most architecture studios do not engage in Horizon 2020 at all. They can credibly connect the built environment sector (facades, materials, urban landscapes) with digital research infrastructure, making them a genuine cross-domain asset for consortia that need to demonstrate real-world design application alongside technical research. Their dual presence in both climate adaptation and big data projects makes them one of the few design-oriented SMEs with a foot in two very different research pillars.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SOLOCLIM
  Their largest funded project (EUR 348,666) and the clearest expression of their core expertise — outdoor climate adaptation through urban design, facade engineering, building materials selection, and vegetation strategies.
• SoBigData-PlusPlus
  Participation in this flagship European big data and social mining infrastructure project signals a deliberate move into digital research ecosystems that is highly unusual for an architecture-oriented firm.