This project proposes a multipurpose high-rise building for Berklee College of Music, located at the busy intersection of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. The building includes a main theatre, a black box theatre, a library, classrooms, offices, music-making spaces, rehearsal and practice rooms, and shared open areas for student life. The design is derived from a massing approach, rationalizing the site’s irregular shape into three elementary figures: two rectangular volumes that frame a circlar volume in between. The southern bar is shorter and denser, while the northern bar is taller and more transparent. At the intersection, these two clashing bars squeeze out the third volume, which serves as a transitional threshold between the public and the main theatre on the ground floor. The entrances for students and the public are seperate, offering each group a unique entry experience. From the exterior, the clear reading of the three distinct forms visually erase the presence of the main theatre, expressing a consistent language from the base to the roof of the building. This expression extends across the entire scheme. Through a modular approach, the facade system mirrors the structure, integrating this multi-functional tower into a rational and cohesive whole.
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course: Core III - INTEGRATE
Project: Berkelee College of Music
Instructor: Adam Frampton
Year: 2024
This project proposes a civic mat building sitting on the boundary between Chinatown and Leather District in downtown Boston, divided by a highway tunnel and heavy traffic. The design features a primary spine that cuts through the entire site, integrating the overall structure and connecting the key entry points on either side. Secondary pathways branch off from this main axis, mirroring the lateral connection between the two distinct zones and celebrating the binary spatial experiences as one meanders across the two sides. On the east side of the spine, the building is subdivided into various programs, including classrooms, meeting rooms on the first two floors, recreational space, and a banquet hall on the top floor. The interior walls on the first two floors gradually thicken from one side to the other along the main hallway, creating a sense of growth that can potentially expand beyond the site boundary. These thick walls are carved to be occupiable, making the smaller programs more intimate and private. In contrast, an expansive gallery occupies the other half, serving as a flexible space and potentially a collective shelter for extreme climate conditions. The monolithic massing and the curved roof form accentuate yet integrates the juxtaposition of the two halves, celebrating the transition between private and public areas.
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course: Core II - SITUATE
Project: P02 - Civic Mat
Instructor: Elle Gerdeman
Year: 2024
This project proposes a civic mid-rise building located in downtown Boston. The design is based on the distinct corner condition of the site where two streets intersect, shaping the waiting experience from both urban and architectural perspectives. The elevated corner façade not only reveals the interior of the theater to public but also creates a dramatic spatial experience beneath it. The atrium above the theater tapers to an oculus at the corner, creating a distinctive visual connection between the building’s interior and the street that becomes more pronounced as visitors ascend the staircase.
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course: Core II - SITUATE
Project: P01 - Civic Mid Rise
Instructor: Elle Gerdeman
Year: 2024
Stooool is made from a PETG plastic membrane and two custom-cut plywood end pieces; these components are joined together through heat-forming the PETG skin to tightly hug the two ends, creating an illusion of floating.
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course: Materials
Project: Stool
Instructor: Jonathan Grinham
Team:Ken Chen, Enoch Liu, Eason Bai, Erica Xin
Year: 2024
Seek two objects you favor,
or two from one whole;
A stretched membrane hugging -
Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol;
It bends and it flexes,
and molds to its space;
In strength unseen,
a rigid embrace.
Whether table or stool,
this bond remains useful;
but if it ever breaks,
remember to recycle;
The project is a geometric exploration focuses on complex surfaces, discovering architectural possibilities through studying different methods of discretization, including secant surfaces, folded plate structures, and waffle frames. The composite consists of identical modules that form an infinitely continuous topology. To show the concept, the physical model is made of four different modules originated from the same surface. Each module implements a specific type of discretization method, implying different architectural conditions and levels of resolution of the composite. The composite is able to expand either vertically or horizontally.
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design
Course: Architectural Representation II, Geometries in Interaction
Project: Tectonic Assembly
Instructor: Carl D’Apolito-Dworkin
Team: Eason Bai, Shengyuan Liu, Ken Chen
Year: 2023
