Aretian

02/18/2026

Vídeo de la sesión sobre gemelos digitales del Grupo de Nuevas Tecnologías de la UAAU

06/06/2025

Aretian Urban Analytics and Design, a Harvard startup out of the Harvard Innovation Labs, recently made the cover of the French journal Urbanisme, in its most recent special review titled “The Fabric of the City - the AI Revolution”. The authors also present Aretian’s mission across a full-page article as well as its capabilities, through the presentation of some of the most recent projects that Aretian led.

This issue of the journal aims to help the individuals and institutions involved in urban development identify the benefits and undesirable effects of this coming revolution, through a world tour of the most advanced countries in AI, an exploration of start-ups offering tangible solutions, a presentation of key players, a clear and accessible reminder of the major concepts and technological milestones reached by artificial intelligence, without forgetting to address ethical and social issues. This issue focuses on Aretian as a key player at the forefront of this scientific revolution of cities, of urban optimization. The issue describes the Aretian methodology as the new City Science described in the Aretian book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”.

You can buy the Aretian book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/

Since 1932, Urbanisme has been a forum of ongoing reflection and fruitful discussions on the social, cultural, and territorial issues of urban production. The journal has spanned the ages, constantly reaffirming the originality of its editorial line and the quality of its content, through dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers, with diverse perspectives. Urbanisme also supports consulting projects, and boasts over sixty-five years of experience in regional planning and development, particularly relevant to local authorities, local public enterprises, the French government, and its agencies. By leveraging its strengths and knowledge, Urbanisme is leveraging its ability to lead professional communities and promote and stimulate public debate.

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04/10/2025

Ramon Gras Alomà, the Aretian Urban Analytics and Design founder and CEO and co-author of the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, was recently invited to contribute to the panel “Advanced Geospatial AI for Policy Advising” at the Harvard Urban AI conference, taking place on April the 19th, 2025, at the Harvard Science Center (Hall C). He will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on urban policies, as well as the role of Aretian in shaping new policies in urban environments to cater to the challenges of tomorrow. This conference seeks to tackle spatial, social, and economic inequities by facilitating dialogue and collaboration among government agencies, urban planners, technology developers, and academia. These conversations will unveil insights on innovative frameworks for responsibly using AI to build smart, inclusive, and equitable cities.

On stage, Gras Alomà will converse with Fabio Duarte (Senseable Lab @ MIT), Gia Jung (Google Geo Sustainability), Valerie Lechene (Urban Systems Lab @ The New School), and Ben Lewis (Center for Geographic Analysis @ Harvard). Urban development policies rely on extensive data sources from the urban fabric, yet methods and frameworks to obtain detailed, fine-grained insights from these data are often limited. Geospatial AI offers powerful opportunities to bridge this gap, enabling better data gathering and analysis methods of existing urban conditions as well as forecasting future growth. This panel will explore cutting-edge applications of geospatial AI, examine current urban planning needs, and discuss how these geospatial AI innovations will inform better urban policies on issues like sustainability, mobility and equity. The conference will present two other panel conversations titled “AI-Informed Urban Production” and “Urban AI: Concepts, Challenges, and Collaborative Futures”.

You can buy the tickets to the conference here: https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=184&SINGLESTORE=true

Please subscribe to Aretian Urban Analytics and Design for more news about the future of cities and the novel City Science.

03/25/2025

Ramon Gras Alomà, the Aretian Urban Analytics and Design founder and CEO and co-author of the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, was recently invited to the Urbanistas podcast titled “Innovation and Urban Data: The Role of City Science in the Future of Cities” organized by Itziar Navarro. During the podcast, he discussed his vision on how City Science, and more specifically the novel City Science developed by Aretian, is revolutionizing modern urbanism, optimizing urban design, and improving the quality of life in cities. During the conversation, they explored fascinating topics such as Urban Analytics and the Impact of Data on Urban Planning, and the methodology behind the Aretian book "City Science: Performance Follows Form" and its practical application.

Ramon also explained how the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) developed through Harvard University research allow the urban, economic, and research networks within cities to be better evaluated and transformed, thus greatly impacting how cities perform and communities thrive. One recent example of this was the project developed by Aretian for the University of Monterrey Tec, a project that helped guide the university to better understand its strengths and weaknesses, and create a renewed campus vision that helped further its impact on the academic world. Ramon concluded by sharing how advances in City Science are guiding strategic decision-making for urban development and how the tools developed by Aretian are helping to shape the future of our cities.

You can watch the podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ7Ml_pY3bU

Aretian’s research, as showcased in the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, presents an extended study of 100 urban environments and metropolitan areas throughout the World, across the 5 different continents. This study replicates in a three-dimensional manner the morphological features of cities and metropolitan areas, as well as the economic and human systems that inhabit them. This research allows us to compare and contrast - in terms of urban performance - not only the quality of the architectural and urban design characteristics and civil engineering infrastructures but also the impact that those systems have on the quality of life of citizens. This book answers some of the most crucial questions in modern urbanism, such as: to what extent are cities able to provide 15-minute city standards? How are cities able to provide and shape a prosperous knowledge economy? As well as a good and efficient intermodal mobility and transportation system? Among other important urban topics.

Buy the book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/

Please subscribe to Aretian Urban Analytics and Design for more news about the future of cities and the novel City Science.

03/07/2025

Ramon Gras Alomà, the founder and CEO of Aretian Urban Analytics and Design, recently contributed to the Biocat Catalonia Conference. Biocat’s annual conference hosts the publication of the Bioregion report, the reference publication of the Life Sciences innovation ecosystem in Catalonia. Ramon Gras presented the different analyses and recommendations that the Aretian team prepared during the last three months in a joint project with Biocat stemming from the Barcelona Metropolitan Region City Digital Twin (CDT). Specifically, Aretian developed an in-depth study of the Life Sciences ecosystem within the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, highlighting the ecosystem’s unique strengths, its 5 main weaknesses as of today, and pointing out the main 5 initiatives that can strengthen the bioregion’s potential as a global leader, including the Esplugues - Porta de Barcelona Innovation District, the Biopole around the Hospitalet de Llobregat, the 22@ Innovation District, the Badalona i Les tres Xemeneies Innovation District and the Barcelona Besòs Innovation District. Aretian also analyzed the innovation structure of the business scene in the Metropolitan Area, and proposes specific avenues for scenario planning to reach the goals of the urban environment. Lastly, Aretian evaluated, by means of novel methodologies such as network theory, the research network of the region, and identified the core knowledge domains able to constitute world class applied research hubs in the coming years. The Aretian analyses also highlight the top 50 innovative companies and the top 25 startups of the nascent ecosystem.

You can watch the presentation of Ramon Gras here: https://youtu.be/5A60vDwN0pU?si=Tn6AHlAjYQ_jO-t-

Biocat’s annual Report is the reference publication on the life sciences and health sector in Catalonia, which Biocat has been publishing since 2009. The 2024 document represents the 10th edition of the Report, establishing itself as a strategic instrument for analyzing the evolution of the ecosystem, identifying trends, and facilitating decision-making by institutions, companies, and professionals. The Report is based on data from the Biocat Directory (Catalonia Health & Life Sciences Data Platform), which includes information on more than 1,900 companies and entities active in life sciences and health innovation in Catalonia. The last chapter of the report is the result of the collaboration of Biocat with Aretian Urban Analytics and Design, and focuses on urban analysis and data-based design, providing a perspective on the territorial dynamics of the health ecosystem in Barcelona.

You can download the Biocat Report here: https://report.biocat.cat/

Aretian’s research, as showcased in the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, presents an extended study of 100 urban environments and metropolitan areas throughout the World, across the 5 different continents. This study replicates in a three-dimensional manner the morphological features of cities and metropolitan areas, as well as the economic and human systems that inhabit them. This research allows us to compare and contrast - in terms of urban performance - not only the quality of the architectural and urban design characteristics and civil engineering infrastructures, but also the impact that those systems have on the quality of life of citizens. This book answers some of the most crucial questions in modern urbanism such as: to what extent are cities able to provide 15-minute city standards? How are cities able to provide and shape a prosperous knowledge economy? As well as a good and efficient intermodal mobility and transportation system? Among other important urban topics.

Buy the book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/

Please subscribe to Aretian Urban Analytics and Design for more news about the future of cities and the novel City Science.

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02/03/2025

Aretian Urban Analytics and Design’s work was recently presented at the Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV) by Francesco Rossi, professor of Mathematical Analysis, Irene Cazzaro (PhD) and Giacomo Mantelli (PhD candidate). IUAV University of Venice is a leading architecture school in Italy, founded in 1926 as the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. Professor Francesco Rossi researches mathematical modeling of cities and evaluates the impact of urban projects. He contributed alongside Irene Cazzaro and Luca Nicoletto to organizing an exhibition on urban modeling at the university library titled dataPOIESIS. The exhibition displayed the recent Aretian research published in the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form” along with other great foundational works in urbanism and economy performed by great teams such as the MIT Senseable Cities, ETH Zürich, and the Bartlett London, among others.

For some years now, the IUAV Library Commission has been launching biannual calls through which the IUAV community can propose cultural events. The exhibition dataPOIESIS, which took place at the university library from the 22nd of January to the 3rd of February 2025, was within the framework of the C. Scarpa (Centro Superiore di Comprensione, Anticipazione e Ricerca Progettuale Applicata / Higher Centre for Understanding, Anticipation, and Applied Design Research) at IUAV University of Venice.

The exhibition investigated the use of the “graph” as a tool for modeling urban systems with the aim of anticipating, to some extent, their future evolution. The focus was on the application of such models, often inspired by morphogenetic principles and implemented through simulations using cellular automata, multi-agent systems, fractal geometry, etc., in a tradition that dates back at least to the 1970s. The objective was to explore how these tools can contribute to understanding urban dynamics and developing innovative solutions. To this end, the exhibition featured a selection of publications together with reflections and ongoing research outcomes from IUAV and other leading research centers worldwide.

Aretian’s research, as showcased in the book “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, presents an extended study of 100 urban environments and metropolitan areas throughout the World, across the 5 different continents. This study replicates in a three-dimensional manner the morphological features of cities and metropolitan areas, as well as the economic and human systems that inhabit them. This research allows us to compare and contrast - in terms of urban performance - not only the quality of the architectural and urban design characteristics and civil engineering infrastructures, but also the impact that those systems have on the quality of life of citizens. This book answers some of the most crucial questions in modern urbanism such as: to what extent are cities able to provide 15-minute city standards? How are cities able to provide and shape a prosperous knowledge economy? As well as a good and efficient intermodal mobility and transportation system? Among other important urban topics.

Buy the book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/

Please subscribe to Aretian Urban Analytics and Design for more news about the future of cities and the novel City Science.