Hollow Stones and Transient Crevices
Araldo A. Cossutta Prize Nomination
CORE III
Tutor: John May
Fall 2020
Harvard University
TANGENT (geometry) - a straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it
TANGIBLE (perception) - perceptible to the touch or to the mind, something real, substantial
An interplay of perception and geometry, the project attempts to challenge the nature of the office space today, from the open-plan and generic to the intricate and specific. The new MAS headquarters is a space for collaboration and engagement, of moments of in-betweenness that happen at ‘points of tangency’ – between outside and inside, collective and individual, light and dark, field and figure. But how does one building negotiate program and figure, public and private so that they coexist and not contradict?
The building takes shape through a nesting surfaces and programs around three zones of ‘perceived solidity’ - the hollow stones. It reinterprets the poche by creating degrees of seclusion and solidity through a curving filleted surface. The spaces in-between – the crevices, are the public-facing open zones, as extensions of the outside into the building.