Planning a University from the Ground Up

An International Effort
Our work was built upon an earlier conceptual program developed by Maxmakers, a Swiss firm, and Dober Lidsky Mathey of Boston. Our completed program was the result of a four-month effort working with high-level researchers and educators at MIT and an international group of peer researchers and educators from Europe and Russia. Where specific faculty could not be identified, Payette used our firm’s extensive experience in the design of research laboratories to fill in the gaps and envision future programmatic trends in the client’s five focus areas. This combined effort resulted in a detailed program for the two million square foot complex, including laboratories for stem cell, space, and computer science research; large material development and testing; nanotechnology; and energy storage and hydrocarbon recovery. To encourage collaboration, the program organizes research space around multiple shared facilities, such as an experimental semiconductor cleanroom and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance suite.

In addition to the program, Payette developed flexible laboratory prototypes and basic core facilities and programmatic blocking and stacking approaches that could test and inform a site master planning study being developed concurrently by Herzog & de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland.

Design Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Exterior rendering © Herzog & de Meuron