Kent Larson

Kent Larson is an architect, entrepreneur, and academic. He is Director of the City Science research group[1] at the MIT Media Lab.[2][3] Before joining MIT full-time in 2000, he practiced architecture for 15 years in New York City. His research focuses on developing urban interventions that enable more entrepreneurial, livable, high-performance urban districts. Projects include compact transformable housing, ultralight autonomous mobility systems, sensing and algorithms to recognize and respond to complex human behavior, and advanced modeling, simulation, and tangible interfaces for urban design. He led the establishment of an international network affiliated City Science labs in Shanghai, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City, Toronto, Helsinki, Hamburg, Andorra, and Guadalajara.[4] Larson and his researchers from his MIT lab received 10-Year Impact Awards from Ubicomp in 2017 and 2019 for recognition of work that, with the test of time, has had the greatest impact.[5] His book, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks was selected as one of the Ten Best Books in Architecture by the New York Times Review of Books.[6] Larson's TED talk, "Brilliant designs to fit more people in every city," summarized his vision for cities in the future. He is founder of L3Cities,[7] which brings together metrics, data analytics, real-time simulation, and tangible interfaces to help cities and enterprises create more sustainable, equitable, and entrepreneurial communities. He is cofounder of ORI Living,[8] an architectural robotics company to commercialize systems for dynamically reconfigurable spaces, and advisor to Butlr Technologies, SmartRE, evTS, and other MIT spinoff companies. Larson is on the advisory board of the Norman Foster Foundation.[9]


Architecture career

Larson practiced architecture for 15 years in New York City, with work published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Global Architecture, the New York Times, A+U, and Architectural Digest.

Career at MIT

Responsive Housing

Larson’s research group is developing strategies to create high-performance, technology-enabled personalized, places of living that respond to an aging population and new ways of living and working. In this approach, buildings are disentangled into four independently configured layers: high performance chassis, integrated infill, agile technology, and responsive façade modules. These concepts are being deployed in the CityHome: a compact, transformable apartment for urban dwellers that functions as if a much larger space.

Urban Mobility-on-Demand

Upon the 2010 death of William J. Mitchell, former Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Larson's group continued work on the MIT CityCar and developed concepts for shared-use light electric vehicles and intelligent fleet management to provide high-levels of service through sensor networks, dynamic incentives, and intelligent charging. The group worked with automotive suppliers in Spain to develop a commercial version of the MIT CityCar called Hiriko: a folding two-passenger vehicle with robot wheels and drive-by-wire control for urban mobility and highly efficient parking.

Living Labs

Since 2000, Larson and MIT researchers have developed computational tools to understand human behavior in natural environments, including the necessary sensing, interfaces, data collection methods, and visualization capabilities. They have developed prototypical applications that respond to human behavior, with an emphasis on proactive health, energy conservation, and the support of new ways of living and working. This work includes the exploration of data collection and analysis tools to understand the fine-grained attributes of a healthy, high-functioning community or city, and strategies to use this information to inform the design of new communities.

Personal life

Larson lives in Jamaica Plain, Boston, with his wife, Maria Miller Larson.

References
  1. "City Science". MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  2. "PLAN 85: ARTICLE. The City Science Initiative At The Media Lab". MIT School of Architecture + Planning. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  3. MIT Media Lab Web Site
  4. MIT City Science Network
  5. Pervasive 10 Year Impact Award
  6. Reviews of the Ten Best Books in Architecture, 2000 by the New York Times Review of Books
  7. L3 Cities
  8. ORI Living
  9. Norman Foster Foundation
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