Designing large projects come with specific challenges due the complexity and scale of the organization and the proposed built environment. Project phasing, documenting various (and often changeable) user-groups, organizing information from diverse sources from around the world all done within a tight schedule can quickly become overwhelming.
On one such project of large scale, we have addressed all these issues in conjunction with the client’s desire to include research space in a building currently in construction. It would be easy to run headlong into a design process for a project of this size. However, without first having a workable knowledge of how a building is organized and constructed we would be unable to interpret the needs of their research space and their ability to fit into the built environment.
In light of the pressures of schedule and designing for evolving research needs, our first approach may seem counter-intuitive: to slow down and take a long look at the building currently in construction. Through in-depth analysis of the building and its environs we have been able to understand the opportunities and limitations of the built environment relative to the requests we’ve received.
Related:
When Hallways Turn to Streets
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.