Mass Timber Superblock

Mass Timber Superblock was a collaborative studio project that reimagined a drydock plot adjacent to Boston’s Innovation and Design Building at the far end of the Seaport District.  Each student was given identical building dimensions and floor to floor heights to create a cohesive, linear superblock composition.

The structures themselves were built using Mass Timber as a structural system, learning from precedents and building details from such buildings as the Wood Innovation and Design Centre by Architect Michael Green.  This structure’s lyrical inspiration came from shipbuilding both in relation to the history of the drydock site, as well as for the tradition of mass timber framing’s origins in tall ships.  The section shows the intersection of two ships hulls which creates a curved canopy and exterior promenade space to each side of the building.  The interior floorplates allow for a full height atrium space that is navigated in 3 dimensions by a traversing ramp through the upper floors.

WHERE

Boston, MA