HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
Architecture Design Studio II
Critic | William O’Brien Jr.
MIT SA+P | 2014
Critic | William O’Brien Jr.
MIT SA+P | 2014
The figure of this East Boston Music High School is defined by strands assigned to each of the constituent user groups - the administrators and staff (blue), the teachers (yellow), and the students (red). Turns create intersections in response to the degree of interaction between groups.
The activity level of the program rises from landscape and parking in the quiet Northwest corner, surrounded by forest and residences, to a dramatically cantilevered, publicly accessible auditorium and event space that abuts the active urban circle to the Southeast.
Narrow corridors open into sky lit intersections, and users can pool and socialize in niches where the void pushes into the program.
A second type of intersection occurs around the corners of crossing paths, where related program is connected by small pinches to create an enfilade.
A final type occurs at the turns, where a semi-private space is pinched off of the corridor. The boundaries of these spaces are defined by the extension of successive segments, as though the strand were intersecting itself. At the most extreme points, the glazed interior loop penetrates the opaque outer loop to create connections with the outside.
