4 Vessels Kissing the edge of 2 Barns

Core III | Fall 2024 MIT Architecture

In Collaboration with Jacob Payne

Instructors: Yolande Daniels

Year: 2024

Located on the East Boston waterfront, this project involved designing a greenhouse and community center that emphasizes environmental and cultural reciprocity with the site. The design features two intersecting barns, with one being slightly smaller than the other.

One barn is more solid and monolithic, while the other is more translucent and industrial, exposing its structural elements. In the larger barn on the left side, the greenhouse, storage, office, and meeting rooms are located, while on the opposite side, the food preservation room, packaging area, and restaurant kitchen are situated. Four vessels kissing the edges of the barns, serving as auxiliary programs, including a watching tower. The design creates four distinct courtyards, each holding a unique relationship with the community and the environment. The intersection of these two barns creates an opportunity to have a main space and organize programs around it. This main space follows the ideas explored by Japanese architects like Kazuo Shinohara in the 70s—the idea that a house can be built around a main space that is not about program or particular function, but only about the space. This project is designed using primitive shapes, forms, and figures that can be found in the surrounding neighborhood, and it vaguely sits between the barn and silo typologies.