MIT Campus Activities Complex

Cambridge, MA

2005

5,000 sf

Goals

• Accommodate new university pedagogical directions in team/group study assignments by creating spaces where students can work collaboratively outside of the classroom environment.

Challenges

• Insert seven new group-study rooms into an existing 40-year-old reading room, without reducing the occupancy and flexibility that original reading room.
• Maintain the positive aspects of the existing cherished study space under the scrutiny of the advisory board, students, and administration.
• Work within a limited budget and with a desire to avoid modification of existing mechanical systems.
• Create spaces for emerging forms of study and collaboration.

Design Response

• Conducted an exhaustive survey of existing study spaces on campus, and interviewed students to determine the most effective characteristics of those spaces as well as needs for the renovated reading room and group study areas.
• Separated the individual- and group- study areas acoustically and environmentally, while sub-dividing spaces within the group study area into rooms with only partial-height walls, limiting HVAC modifications while maximizing sound isolation.
• Designed a custom study carrel that converts between a single large work desk and two individual study carrels, responding to two distinct styles of study and allowing adjustments to seasonal cycles of demand and density.
• Selected a warm and contemporary palette of furniture, lighting, and finishes to transform the space into a welcoming variety of study environments to satisfy the spectrum of student habits.
• Selected furniture that was functionally responsive to team assignments, more typical of an office environment than a traditional academic environment.
• Incorporated a locker system in response to student needs for short-term storage during study marathons.
• Provided technological infrastructure throughout the space for contemporary study needs.

Contractor

Elaine Construction

Consultants

map-lab, SEi Engineers, Acentech, Milder Office