The Italian architect Carlo Ratti really has embraced the Internet of Things(IOT) from a smart sofa, intelligent personalised office environments to the ‘Future Food District’.

He has been included in Esquire Magazine’s Best and Brightest list, in Blueprint Magazine’s 25 People who will Change the World of Design and in Forbes Magazine’s People you need to know in 2011.

Working with supermarket chain COOP Italia, Ratti wanted to explore whether providing digital information on the origin, ingredients and manufacturing of the foods on display would affect the way that people interact with and select food. The result is the Future Food District – a pavilion that functions as a real supermarket where consumers can purchase items. The difference is that all the products on display are positioned beneath digital mirrors that present information about the foods.
Smart environmental offices are becoming more the norm and Carlo Ratti has gone a step further embracing IOT technologies to create his ‘Office 3.0’ which will use a system of sensors to monitor employees as they actually move around the headquarters of the Agnelli Foundation cultural institution.

Utilising technologies that are becoming collectively known as the ‘Internet of Things’ – employing a series of Wi-Fi-connected sensors to monitor environments and collect sets of data, then uses the information to send instructions to products and services within the building. In this case, the data includes occupancy levels, temperature, CO2 concentration, and the status of meeting rooms.

Ratti really is at the forefront of utilising ‘The Internet of Things’ to the greater good of us all, every week more information is being published on just how our lives are to be transformed in the coming years at a faster pace than we’ve ever witnessed before.