Software: Rhino, V-Ray, Chaos, Adobe Photoshop
REFLECT/REFRACT is a monument for archive, discourse, and community.
It recognizes an unfulfilled need for certain spaces at MIT, acknowledges an additional need to commemorate the Institute's history on an ever-changing campus, and arrives at a solution that is simultaneously forward-thinking and respectful of the past.
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In 2022, construction began on a building that would become the new home for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning (MIT SAP). Founded in 1865 and begun in 1868, MIT was the first school in the United States to offer a formal architecture education. Since then, MIT SAP has become one of the most accomplished and highest ranked schools for architecture in the world.
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With MIT SAP leaving its historic home after so much time, it is the goal of REFLECT/REFRACT to archive and celebrate that history by creating a space for community gathering and architecture appreciation. The project is situated in a mostly rectangular lot on campus, bordered on four sides by academic buildings. REFLECT/REFRACT's form takes inspiration from the portion on the fourth floor of these buildings that has historically been occupied by SAP (the yellow highlighted area in the red box). This has long been the main hub for architecture at MIT.
Graphic courtesy of Hana Davis, Logan King, and Simmone Stearn
This plan-zone was then reflected across an axis that intersected with three rooms significant to MIT SAP (circled in red, from left to right: a studio, a cafe/lounge area, and another studio). The portion of the plan-zone that fell into the open lot became the template for REFLECT/REFRACT.
Perhaps the three most striking features of REFLECT/REFRACT are its stilts, glass dome, and secondary interior. The lot on which the project is situated has historically been used for accessible parking and student activities. Raising the building on stilts allows the lot to continue to be accessible, both by car and on foot. And while the glass dome bears some similarity to the concrete one on which it's based, its transparency allows light to penetrate into the space year-round.
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The interior takes full advantage of this phenomenon. The second, third, and fourth floors of REFLECT/REFRACT all have donut-like holes cut into them, with skybridges connecting the outer rings to the inner portions. Anyone walking along these skybridges can see all the way up to the glass dome; similarly, sunlight can penetrate all the way down to the base of the building. These inner portions form a "secondary interior" for the project, and house spaces for architectural intimacy (a two-story gallery on the first and second floors, an archive on the third floor, and a community space on the fourth).
With four floors covering over 25,000 square feet, REFLECT/REFRACT is designed to be a space for community events, academia, lounging, work, play, circulation, storage, and research.
Overall, it boasts a visitor center, gallery, archive, conservation lab, reading room, materials library, auditorium, workshops, classrooms, bathrooms, and freight elevator.
