Primary Job Title Director, MIT City Science Initiative and Director, Changing Places Primary Organization 
MIT Media Lab
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Regions Greater Boston Area, East Coast, New England Gender Male
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Kent Larson directs the City Science Initiative and the Changing Places Group at the MIT Media Lab. Research is focused on developing urban interventions that enable more entrepreneurial, livable, high-performance districts in cities. His research team brings together architects, urban planners, computer scientists, and mechanical and electrical
engineers to create an anti-disciplinary team to prototype and pilot test next-generation solutions for cities. Projects include advanced simulation and augmented reality for urban design, transformable micro-housing to make living in the creative heart of the city affordable for young professionals, and mobility-on-demand systems that provide practical and sustainable alternatives to private automobiles. Larson has established a network of living lab partner cities that includes Hamburg, Andorra, Taipei, Lisbon, and Boston. He and his researchers received the "10-Year Impact Award" from Ubicomp 2014: a "test of time" award for work that, with the benefit of that hindsight, has had the greatest impact.
Larson practiced architecture for 15 years in New York City, with design work published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Global Architecture, the New York Times, A+U, and Architectural Digest. His book, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks was selected as one of the Ten Best Books in Architecture of the year by the New York Times Review of Books.
