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An American Section
STUDIO
GSD Option Studio : An American Section
DATE
2019 Fall
INSTRUCTOR
Kersten Geers, David Van Severen (OFFICE KGDVS)
SITE
Allston, Cambridge, MA, US
Precedent Study: Deere & Company Headquarters West Building / Kevin Roche
An expansion of the headquarters, it is located on the knoll west of the original administration building. The exterior of the building is based on the original curtain wall, modified to meet current energy conservation requirements.
Perspective
To avoid the psychological problem of people working in an annex, it was determined that the addition should have a center of its own; and that center became an enclosed garden, around which the open-workstation office space is arranged. The resulting garden, which is sixty feet wide, slopes down one level from the main entry to connect to the cafeteria at the lower level and serves as a relief space for the transition between work and meal. The rocks that form the surface of the garden came from Iron Mountain in Michigan and are appropriate to the environment created by the exposed, weathered steel building. The barn-like, skylighted roof of the central courtyard helps to give the illusion of greater height and more volume.
Long Section
Both the cafeteria and office spaces are completely open to the central garden. This acts as an absorber of extraneous ambient noise so that the working environment is remarkably quiet.The ceilings are polished aluminum slats that, reflecting the greenery of both the outside and inside court, pick up the dappling light in a kind of diffused glitter and help to extend the landscape atmosphere into the work space.
Both the cafeteria and office spaces are completely open to the central garden. This acts as an absorber of extraneous ambient noise so that the working environment is remarkably quiet.The ceilings are polished aluminum slats that, reflecting the greenery of both the outside and inside court, pick up the dappling light in a kind of diffused glitter and help to extend the landscape atmosphere into the work space.
Roof Detail
Program:
Compared to the “hiding gesture” which lies in American architectures, this project aims to achieve a new interpretation of this inward and unwelcoming intention. Thus, it could have more connection and interaction with its context and users. Those six hidden boxes each has its distinctive function, including a light well, exhibition spaces, laboratory, gathering spaces and so on.
While the repetitive floor plates are penetrated by these boxes, containing regular offices, organized as a field of landscape of offices as a continuous interior. The winter garden in John Deere turns into a field of hidden boxes. When people approach the building, they first see the repetitive glass curtain wall which wraps the entire building, and further discover that there are white solid boxes hidden inside, which also becomes several indicators for people to explore the building.
Skylight:
Apart from the light well which introduces light to the center of the building, the other five hidden boxes all serve both as a container of programs and a container of light. With openings on two side of the façade and the shifted floor plates, it creates possibilities to let light come into these double height free spaces. While the street view still maintains its totality as solid boxes which forms the building’s skylight.
Skylight Detail
Contents