MIT News breed · Wetenschap

MIT Transforms Historic Warehouse into New Academic Hub

MIT's School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) has moved into the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, a former brick building, now renamed the Met Warehouse. The transformation, led by architecture firm Diller Scofido + Renfro (DS+R), aimed to create a campus-wide hub for teaching, research, and public engagement, offering larger studios, new facilities, and fostering collaboration.

The Met Warehouse, originally built in phases starting in 1894 and completed in 1923, featured thick brick walls and numerous storage units. Its transformation involved dividing the 500-foot-long building into five segments, each containing double-height, column-free studios suspended from roof trusses. This design allows for interdisciplinary work, combining making and research within the same spaces.

To address the building's lack of natural light, DS+R carved large voids along the north side and replaced sections of the brick exterior with glass facades. This approach, inspired by artist Gordon Matta-Clark's interventions, floods the studios with light and offers views of the Cambridge cityscape. The project involved extensive testing and collaboration with construction teams to ensure the design's feasibility.

The building's south and east sides were largely preserved due to historical commission requests. Consequently, larger studio spaces are concentrated on the north, while smaller areas like offices and seminar rooms are situated on the south. An "intersect window" strategy was developed for the south facade, integrating new window frames with existing apertures to satisfy historical preservation requirements while adding a unique aesthetic.

The Met Warehouse also features an "Infinite Corridor" on each floor, designed to connect various spaces and encourage interaction, echoing MIT's main campus feature. Large, central staircases pierce through the corridors, facilitating vertical circulation and creating opportunities for serendipitous encounters between students and faculty. This design aims to foster a culture of collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas.

The adaptive reuse of the Met Warehouse represents a shift from the modernist tradition of building anew to embracing historic structures. Architects emphasized that repurposing buildings is crucial given limited resources and helps maintain a city's character. The project aims to provide a flexible and inspiring environment that feels like home for students and faculty, encouraging experimentation and a hands-on approach to design.

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