Project Research

Zenolith - An Interplanetary Time Device

On Earth, morning, noon, and night have their own specific meanings. The feeling of a second or a minute passing by, the shortening of the …
Research
Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Publication Research

Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture

Jain, A., Maes, P., Sra, M. (2023). Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture. In: Simeone, A., Weyers, B., Bialkova, S., Lindeman, R.W. (eds) Everyday Virtual and Augmented Reality. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05804-2_9
Project Research

Two Mobility Futures 0∞

Two Mobility Futures 0∞ is a research project that encompasses storytelling, a democratic decision making platform, a city model, and an im…
Research
Beyond the Cradle

Beyond the Cradle
Project Research

Machine learning approach to design acoustic experiences

Machine learning in acoustics is an emerging field with great potential yet to be explored. Previous research includes predicting acoustic …
Project Research

Enhancing well-being through low-frequency resonance: a parametric analysis of space geometry

Resonance at low frequencies strongly influences a room's perception of sound, which can enhance or deteriorate the acoustic experience. Pr…
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Course Research

MAS.S64 - City Sci-fi: Speculative Movie Making Towards the Design of Future Cities

This class is a hands-on workshop on fiction narrative and movie making.
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Project Research

Persuasive Electric Vehicle (PEV)

An Alternative Autonomous Revolution System design for emerging urban contexts and societal aspirationsThe Persuasive Electric Vehicle…
Research
Opera of the Future

Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
Research
City Science

Looking beyond smart cities
Inventing the future of digitally augmented objects and environments.
Archived
Research
Poetic Justice

Exploring new forms of social justice through art
Research
Conformable Decoders

Converting the patterns of nature and the human body into beneficial signals and energy
Archived
Project Research

City Science Lab @ Aalto

Aalto University, Finland, and the MIT Media Lab’s City Science group are co-developing a version of the MIT CityScope platform for urban a…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Microgravity Extrusion

Traditional additive manufacturing processes, especially those that make use of liquid resin as the feedstock, are constrained by the gravi…
Archived
Article Research

Breathing Architecture

Ekene Ijeoma's Breathing Pavilion installation explores the power and meaning of breath.
Article Research

Unconventional Investigations: Google's Chrisoula Kapelonis on a Human-Centric Approach, Interfaces for Living, and the Effects of Space

Chrisoula Kapelonis discusses the Media Lab's impact on her current work at the intersection of technology and built environment.
Project Research

Spatial Flux: Body and architecture in space

Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new wor…
Project Research

Candlewax Rockets: A Green Alternative for In-Space Propulsion

Wax-based hybrid rocket propellants, including paraffin (common candlewax) and beeswax show promise as high-performing hybrid rocket propel…
Research
Personal Robots

Building intelligent personified technologies that collaborate with people to help them learn, thrive, and flourish.
Project Research

SensorNets

SensorNets: Towards Reconfigurable Multifunctional Fine-grained  Soft and Stretchable Electronic Skins.SensorNets is a bioin…
Project Research

Space Fabrics: resilient electronic textiles for distributed sensing in low Earth orbit

Overview: The outermost skin of a space-based structure is designed using materials known to protect against the harsh elements of space. S…
Article Research

'I Make Tiny Homes That Can Grow 33% Bigger'

Hasier Larrea, an alum of the City Science research group, talks about the research that led him to co-found spinoff Ori.
Research
Sculpting Evolution

Cultivating wisdom through evolutionary and ecological engineering
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Archived
Research
Scalable Cooperation

Reimagining human cooperation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence
Center for Civic Media
Archived
Archived
Research
Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies
Archived
Research
Mediated Matter

Designing for, with, and by nature
Project Research

Tapis Magique: A Choreomusical Interactive Carpet

Ancient textiles have played a major role in the social, economic, and religious structures of communities around the world. Iconic, indige…
Article Research

Butlr's people-sensing platform is designed as Google Analytics for buildings

In Dezeen, learn more about Butlr, a spinoff co-founded by former Labbers Honghao Deng and Jiani Zeng.
Archived
Project Research

Digital Construction Platform

The Digital Construction Platform (DCP) is an experimental enabling technology for large-scale digital manufacturing. In contrast to the ty…
Archived
Project Research

The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit

By Rachel Bellisle
Article Research

MIT Media Lab trials modular tiles that self-assemble into "entirely novel type of space architecture"

Ariel Ekblaw talks about the TESSERAE project, which was tested on the Space Station during the recent Axiom Space AX-1 mission.
Project Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Space Architecture

Overview: How will we build the coming generations of Space Architecture—the modules, space ships, and space stations that will enscon…
Project Research

Fluid Expressions - Art and Craft in Microgravity

When imagining human life in space, how will we express our humanity and creativity in an alien environment? Can the art we make both refle…
Project Research

KnittedKeyboard II

Spanning from the early Musical Telegraph and Electronic Sackbut, to the late EMS Synthi AKS and Moog Synthesizers, electronic music and mu…
Article Research

3 Questions: Ariel Ekblaw on building beautiful architecture in space

The TESSERAE project, a design for self-assembling space structures and habitats, has sent prototypes to the International Space Station.
Project Research

With(in)

With(in) is a multi-stage project that includes an exhibit, installation, qualitative exploration, and visual storytelling.This is a s…
Project Research

SpaceHuman 2.0

SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratizati…
Article Research

Window 0∞

How will new mobility patterns shape the built environment?
Article Research

Ariel Ekblaw: Space Colonization and Self-Assembling Space Megastructures

Ariel Ekblaw talks about leading the Space Exploration Initiative, self-assembling space architecture, science fiction, + long-term thinking
Article Research

Building a visual world

Article by cinematographer and visual artist Sean Webley 
Article Research

Love 0∞

How do new mobility patterns interfere relationships?
Gallery Research

Two Mobility Futures - testing space

Prototyping and testing space of Two Mobility Futures 0∞.  
Project Research

Aguahoja III

Aguahoja III expands the capabilities of a broad library of sustainable, organic 3D materials with generative patterns that countervail str…
Archived
Project Research

Glass II

Optically transparent and structurally sound, glass has played a significant role in the evolution of product and architectural design acro…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Wanderers

The Wanderers were unveiled as part of the exhibition: ‘The Sixth Element: Exploring the Natural Beauty of 3D Printing' on display a…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Gemini

Gemini—an acoustical “twin chaise"—spans multiple scales of the human existence extending from the warmth of the womb to the stretches of…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Totems

Biodiversity on planet Earth is under momentous threat, with extinction rates estimated between 100 and 1,000 times their pre-human level. …
Archived
Project Research

Reconfigurable space structures

Rapid prototyping platforms such as 3D printers used for digital fabrication are today able to manufacture custom objects for specific task…
Article Research

Robotic cubes shapeshift in outer space

Self-reconfiguring ElectroVoxels use embedded electromagnets to test applications for space exploration.
Article Research

Ori’s partnership with Marriott Hotels, announced at CES this week

Spinoff Ori, co-founded by alum Hasier Larrea, has announced an agreement to partner with Marriott Hotels’ Design Lab.
How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants.
Archived
Project Research

The Power of Without

The Power of WITHOUT is a research theme in the City Science group. The theme proposes that heavy infrastructure solutions are not financia…
Project Research

Envirome Monitoring with CRISPR Biosensors

In recent years, there has been an increase in low-cost and open-source electronic and chemical sensors that hobbyists, concerned citizens,…
Archived
Project Research

superpose - A connected experience of sound and space

The superpose installation mediates continuously changing wave phenomena within a space that are visible, audible, and react to the presenc…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Gravity Proof: Speculating Cosmic Futures

Gravity Proof is a performance and mission to prepare and cook bread in space. Inspired by ancient recipes and archaeological bread re…
Archived
Article Research

Moon Village at Biennale Architettura 2021 | Life Beyond Earth

Life Beyond Earth is a multidisciplinary project that explores advanced space architecture concepts to enable humankind to live on the Moon.
Project Research

Moon Village

In 2015, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, introduced the concept of the “Moon Village.” Inspired by the…
Project Research

City Science Lab @ Andorra

Andorra and the City Science research group at the MIT Media Lab are taking on the challenge of turning Andorra into an “Internationally Re…
Project Research

Astronaut Ethnography

Our journeys off-world have taught us just as much about humanity as the harsh environment of space. For the past 20 years, we have had a c…
Project Research

A Scalable Networked Smart Sensate Skin

We have developed tightly coupled sensor network that tries to mimic some of the sensory characteristics of a natural skin. Developed in a …
Archived
Publication Research

Electronic Textile Gaia: Ubiquitous Computational Substrates Across Geometric Scales

Wicaksono, I.*, Cherston, J.*, & Paradiso, J. A. (2021). Electronic Textile Gaia: Ubiquitous Computational Substrates Across Geometric Scales. IEEE Pervasive Computing.
Project Research

Bio-Digital Wearables or Space Health Enhancement

Living in space could have significant physical and mental impacts on astronauts. Wearables have the potential to play a critical role in m…
Article Research

Life in space: Preparing for an increasingly tangible reality

The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring.
Project Research

Self Assembling Space Frames

Ever wish you could toss your folded up tent and have it self-assemble mid-air?  Well...you can. In a zero gravity environment.Self As…