Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, MIT
Cambridge, Mass.
Charles Correa Associates / Goody Clancy
Charles Correa Associates teams with Goody Clancy to design a neuroscience research center that encourages collaboration
By Nancy Levinson
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has undergone remarkable transformations in the past decade. Not since the mid-20th century, when the school commissioned Alvar Aalto’s Baker House and Eero Saarinen’s MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium, has the 90-year-old, 168-acre campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seen so much formally adventurous new architecture. Notable projects of the billion-dollar campus building program include Simmons Hall, the riotously fenestrated dormitory by Steven Holl Architects [record, May 2003, page 204] and the Stata Center, a computer science extravaganza by Gehry Partners [record, August 2004, page 98]. The latest major new work is the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex (BCSC), certainly the least showy and arguably the most satisfying of them all. Designed by Charles Correa Associates, of Mumbai, in collaboration with architect of record Goody Clancy, of Boston, the seven-story, 412,000-square-foot BCSC is the world’s largest center for neuroscience research; it is also an elegant example of leading-edge laboratory design.
The BCSC posed all the typical demands of design for research—and then some. The program specified almost four dozen wet and dry laboratories, along with much specialized equipment (cold rooms, hot rooms, autoclaves, centrifuges, magnetic resonance imagers, electrophysiology rigs, etc.). It also called for communal areas that would support ad hoc collaboration.
The program was further complicated by a bureaucratically and philanthropically intricate agenda. Home to the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department, the complex also would house two new, endowed centers, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory—each requiring a distinct presence.
Programmatic complexities were matched by site idiosyncrasies. The BCSC is located on a triangular plot of land. To the north is the major thoroughfare of Main Street, making the new building a campus gateway. To the south is the ebullient Stata Center, a tough iconic act to follow. Complicating matters further, the site is bisected by an active freight railroad. On top of this spatial challenge, the sensitive lab machinery required structural isolation from low-frequency train vibrations.
The architects confronted these challenges with formal and technical ingenuity. To accommodate the three departmental entities, they skillfully exploited the site geometry; each program occupies its own generous corner of the triangle, and McGovern and Picower have their own imposing entrances with multistory lobbies. In the center of the building, a five-story, glass-roofed atrium brings daylight deep into the building and unifies the complex. Scientists use the atrium for large gatherings. For social interactions, they can choose from a variety of spaces: a bamboo-filled conservatory, a double-height library, and many seminar rooms and tearooms.
Want the full story? Read the entire article in our July 2006 issue.
Subscribe to Architectural Record in print, or get Architectural Record digitally
Formal name of Project:
Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, MIT
Location:
Cambridge, Mass.
Gross square footage:
412,000 sq. ft.
Total project cost:
$175 million
Owner:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Architect:
Charles Correa Associates (Lead Designer)
9 Mathew Road
Mumbai 400 004
India
01-91-22-363-3307 p
01-91-22-363-1138 f
www.charlescorrea.net
Goody Clancy (Architect of Record)
420 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 262-2760 p
(617) 262-9512 f
www.goodyclancy.com
Click here to see all the people and products behind this project |
print
this page
e-mail
this page
Click here for slide show.
