Loose Ends, Lean-tos + Backdrops
Chelsea, MA
with Kirsten Sexton
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Studio led by Jennifer Bonner
This project is receptive of change, as differing wall types host a variety of uses that are not predescribed, but rather open to interpretation.
Flashes of activity are revealed at discrete moments and the wall begins to operate on multiple scales.
A formula of lean to + back drop + existing foregrounds the use of wall as a device for reintroducing a human scale to the site. Public space becomes bracketed by large, almost caricatured architectural gestures. Housing is lifted from the ground floor and a seamless corridor for art. Residents and visitors alike enjoy puncturing light wells, connecting art and housing through shared light.
Layers of Boxes, lean-tos, and rolled out cyc walls become the backdrop for life, exaggerating both the mundane and the eccentricity of the urban condition and posturing as the main architectural interest.
The Cyc walls allow for multitudes of pop-up urban moves and backdrop each new day.