Materials Exploration

Student: Cody Jones
Studio: IDC (pre-A Studio)
Project: Materials
Date: Fall 2009

This work is from the IDC project 'Materials', in which students were asked to design an inhabitable space that had public, private, interior, and exterior spaces. It came about from models that were made from trash where we combined the floor plans of the models and created trace overlays to discover new spaces that weren't represented in the original models. - Cody Jones

Cultural Center in Chinatown by Steven Packard

Steven Packard
B.Arch. student

B-2 Project: Cultural Center in Chinatown, Boston
"The project uses a series of structural armatures and planes organized to develop a cultural center in Chinatown. The idea was to create a system of spaces for experiencing an artist's exhibition.


Boston's Chinatown consists of a unique air circulation system around the given site. Using this urban wind tunnel, a building method can be established to develop voided perforations in the structure to allow air to pass through the building. The system of structural units will emphasize a vertical composition of plans balancing within a system of armatures.



I established a grid to develop into a structure. As final components were being developed, I needed to design the structure that occupies the east half of the site with armatures extending towards the Surface Artery. This created a top-heavy structure. However, organizing the larger and shorter planes to balance the structure around its center of gravity allowed it to stand on its own." - Steven Packard

(Click on the image to enlarge the board.)

Work by Interior Design Student Andy Vieira

Back to School :: DP and A1

These photos were taken on Tuesday, September 8, at the first Design Principles and A1 Studio classes of the fall semester.

Achieving Alternative Practice Credits :: One Student's Story

(Brittany Whitaker, with the owner and another manager, is on the right. Photos: Brittany Whitaker)

Brittany Whitaker, a Bachelors of Design Studies sustainable design student, is also manager at the Butterfly Cafe in Roxbury Crossing. She describes it as a "small, locally owned coffee shop has big dreams, but little resources." To tie in her academic interest with her day job, she worked this summer to implement sustainable design and waste management practices at the coffee shop.


When she became manager, Brittany signed up with the Sustainable Business Leadership Program (SBLP), which is designed to instill environmentally safe practices throughout small businesses around Boston. "With the help of SBLP, I developed an action plan to improve the cafe in terms of sustainability," says Brittany. "I focused on waste reduction, energy efficiency, and water conservation."


Specifically, Brittany invested in ceramic mugs and plates, as well as silverware, to dimish waste. On top of that, she purchased only used items from thrift stores. "This has greatly reduced the amount of trash produced each day," says Brittany.


In terms of water consumption, the cafe changed the aerators in its sinks to lower the gallons-per-minute flow rate, and put up conservation signs in the bathrooms. Instead of harmful cleaning products, Brittany made the switch to vinegar and water and other non-toxic products.


The Butterfly Cafe has also instituted composting and a recycling program. "In order to afford the amount of recycling I wanted, I realized we would need to earn more money," says Brittany. "The other manager and I created Community Night, from which our recycling fund developed." Local artists, musicians, friends, and customers are invited to this monthly event. "It helps develop a sense of community," says Brittany, "and it spreads awareness of our changes, and hopefully instills a belief in sustainability."

(The trash and recycling cans were brightly decorated to encourage use.)

Brittany received practice credit for her efforts. "This is an excellent example of how a student, through creativity and leadership, can apply her design education outside traditional design settings and how she can 'practice' as a BAC student outside our traditional definition of practice," says Don Hunsicker, Head, School of Design Studies.

Update :: Canopy Studio :: Spring 2009

(Photos: Charles Garcia)

The Urban DesignBuild Program, a spring 2009 advanced studio at the BAC, is still working hard on their research of canopies. Titled 'Nomadic Canopies', the studio researched fabric construction, made study mock-ups, and full-scale prototypes. The latest canopy, affectionately called 'fat webby', made its formal debut around the outside of the BAC buildings.


Check out the class blog for more information on the project.
Click this link for more photos.

A-2 Studio :: Summer 2009

The Chair Project

The students in this summer's A-2 Studio recently completed their first project, a chair design. In two intense weeks, they studied the human body, scale, joinery in cardboard, and furniture building. The end result was diagrams, models of joinery and chairs, a final full-scale model of a chair, and accompanying technical drawings.

In their designs, students considered issues such as scale, comfort, strength, design, and concepts. Most exciting, each chair was unique!

View the slide show on the right-hand side, and check back later this week for more images. (Photos: Hadiya Strasberg)

Housing Hybrids C Studio :: Spring 2009

This C Studio, taught by Maria Arquero and Emilio Ontiveros, focused on mixing multi-scalar residential strategies. The studio was structured by scale - city, building, and apartment. Within that hierarchy, students analyzed existing sites, blended the sites they studied, and combined in location (context). Working in other direction, they then moved from the small-scale to the large-scale, working to create a building from an apartment design and a city from an apartment.

To see more work from this class, look at the slideshow on the sidebar.

View B-1 and B-2 Studio Work :: May 2009

Slide-shows of B-1 and B-2 Studio Work has been added to the right-side column.

Please take a minute to browse through students' work taken from
Monday and Tuesday, May 18 and 19, 2009.

Envelope C Studio Work :: Spring 2009

The envelope is not only the skin of the building. The envelope is the assemblage between the construction of the skin and the proportions of the envelope. Building envelops have been at the core of architecture research in the latest decade. That focus of attention is the result of a complex process of convergence of technological achievements, typological evolutions, practice policies and aesthetic paradigms.

The goal of Julia Capomaggi's Spring 2009 C Studio was to redesign the role of the building envelope, understanding it as a device that intersects interior and the exterior, confronting its material and technological definition with its socio-cultural role. Each student's building includes a new Prada store program, showrooms, offices, gallery space and a coffee bar.

For more student work from this class, scroll down to the slideshow on the right-hand side of your screen.

BAC Urban DesignBUILD Program :: Spring 2009

(Nomadic Canopies, mock-up session - Spring '09)

BAC designBUILD Program
An Advanced Architectural Workshop at the BAC

Underlying Program Goals:

* Lead students in HANDS-ON construction combined with a design studio education in order to discover new intersections between design and fabrication.

* Foster a COLLABORATIVE studio environment such that students engage more fully in a dialogue with their peers, practitioners, context and communities.

* Implement architecture, design and the making of space to catalyze POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE and stewardship of our built environment.

AIAS/Kawneer Design Competition

2007 AIAS/Kawneer Design Competition
Jonathan Garland, BAC 2009, Honorable Mention