aXon Academic Campus Education City, Qatar

Considering the influence of the climate and the need for enhancing informal academic interaction, the aXon Academic Campus utilizes small scale planning and massing considerations to go beyond the normal focus on general program designations and exterior spatial hierarchies. The primary insight centers around the occupancy of small outdoor rooms which, when partially covered, assist with the creation of micro-climates and reduce cooling loads on buildings. In effect – a convergent solution to both the live/learn and ecological requirements which affect the overall planning scale and pattern.

The conceptual pattern of aXon housing emphasizes a boldly perforated network of finely scaled open spaces with omnidirectional filtering of light, people and circulation.  The pattern emulates the aggregation of courtyards typical of village fabrics emerging over centuries.  Two main spatial axes provide orientation and wayfinding.  The east-west entrance axis relates to Education City’s central mall.  The north-south axis forms a linear plaza spine collecting and linking the four corners of the village.  Like the complex pattern of a traditional screen, the aXon plan distributes amenities in an informal array, creating nexuses of social and educational interaction.  The main educational and common spaces are embedded at the geographical center of the complex with gated access to the four visually private neighborhoods.

May Residence

This suburban residence is the third in a family of projects whose resemblance is based on a common demonstration of innovative building elements meant as proposals for general use. The May residence is sited on difficult terrain. Its point of departure is a cantilever used to minimize the footprint on the small lot while thrusting the second floor living spaces and decks out to the view.

A wood structured and concrete paved bridge makes the connection to the street with minimal disruption to the topography. The auto is accommodated by a richly detailed porch roof which serves the front door as well. Three elements of the iconic house; roof, dormer and vertical mass (chimney) are impacted and brought together on the front elevation to convey a clearly legible image of domesticity. The cladding and windows are second generation prototypes exploring refinements in methods of assembly, finish and functionality. The cladding is resin-coated plywood, assembled in coursed boards which are coordinated with the window and door openings. Using a cambered jamb, the windows, though as tall as 9 ft, use a single handle fastener to seal and maintain full compression against the weather.

flexDorm

flexDorm is a new type of college and university housing, which frees institutions from the limitations of prescribed programming. Incorporating advanced construction techniques as well as anticipating future materials and technology, the housing is based on the dimensions and assembly methods of modular home technology. Rather than forcing living and learning configurations into a predetermined building package, flexDorm’s changeability allows for continuous adaptation to current needs.

The building block of flexDorm is the 14’w x 10’h x 54’ long prefabricated module consisting of two student rooms with intermediate corridor section and common area. The building construction incorporates future materials such as ‘switchable mirror glass’, smart wall projection and parts-free floating heating and cooling valances.

IRS Northeast Regional Headquarters

Serving as a model for future US government office buildings, this project transforms an existing 400,000 square foot building from a maze of dark workspaces into a dynamic workspace infused with natural light. The project’s many initiatives relate to the creation of a forward looking workplace with environmental features that promote team building and help to create a larger sense of community and belonging.

Like the diagonal boulevards of a city plan, new cross-plan paths outlined by ceiling soffits and lighting will create direct links between landmarks in the floor plan. Four major loci – the lobby complex, two new internal gardens and the renovated existing courtyard – will anchor the building’s workplace neighborhoods. Maximizing the workplace benefits of natural light, the new Andover Service Center will employ a variety of sustainability techniques for harvesting daylight and will include one of the nation’s largest building-integrated photovoltaic installations.

Harvard Graduate Housing Complex

The 29 Garden St. Graduate Housing Complex for Harvard University provides 143 beds for students from a wide array of graduate programs. The project's 75 residential units include studio, double-studio, two bedroom and faculty three bedroom unit types. Other components of the community complex include a residential food servery/convenience store, a dining commons/multi-function room seating 45-80, an informal lounge, a garage with parking for 62 cars, a laundry facility, a campus police substation, double-height communal spaces, and a new 10,000 square foot rooftop garden terrace.

Working at the urban scale, the roof of the existing parking structure on the interior of the site was developed as a new occupiable open space. The newly reclaimed garden is accessed and visible from Garden Street through a three storey archway and stair cut through the existing building facade.

At the terrace level, three bedroom townhouse-type units, accessed directly from the new garden, provide for a resident faculty presence. On the typical levels, a new housing type for Harvard - the ‘double studio’ – has been created. One double studio type affords students independent living/study/sleep areas, while sharing kitchen and bath amenities. The second variety includes a space-efficient, pre-furnished shared dining/conference/social nook and provides private bathrooms for each student.

Harvard Landscape Institute

The Landscape Institute’s glass partitions are arranged in a continuous curve which forms the varying dimensions needed for the classrooms. The organic curve is the signature element of the space giving a clear identity to the Institute. Its sawtooth plan detail arose out of the integration of horizontally bracing glass fins (normally separate perpendicular elements) with the overall line of the wall.

At the ceiling, the existing building’s concrete girders, carrying the weight of the building above, penetrate the glass wall to form the locations of classroom entrances. Between the beams, low-cost wire mesh ceiling panels screen mechanical services while allowing relief from the low second level ceiling heights.

Brookline Dental

A growing community based dental practice requested a recognizable contemporary image and a cutting edge clinical environment. This project includes eight operatories with each developed as a distinct space in order to express an emphasis on individualized care. The pod-like enclosures are indented to maximize even ambient north light for the benefit of the dental procedures.

Reinforcing the practice’s reputation for exacting technical standards, the clinical laboratory is featured at the end of the widening operatory corridor. A prow-like conference room/lounge provides a uniquely legible brand presence to speeding automobiles on the adjacent boulevard frontage.

Brookline Residence Interiors

The interior finishes are roughly troweled plaster and burnished concrete with doors and trim of Philippine Mahogany. The floating concrete floor topping provides acoustic insulation between floors of the light wood construction. The topping includes concealed radiant heating in order to eliminate the intrusion of mechanical fixtures in the simple detailed spaces. Specially designed passage doors are hung on pivots and overlay their frames providing a sculptural presence for the flush wood slabs. The new casework and paneling are of subtly contrasting species: birch for the upper floors, rift cut American White Oak with it’s brilliant medullary flecks for the formal living room and quartered Red Oak for the dining floor.