MIT Department of Aeronautics/Astronautics
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.

Hands-on learning serves as the creative impetus for this lab facility

© Nick Wheeler

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The historic Guggenheim laboratory has been renovated and expanded to create new, highly flexible learning laboratories that combine classrooms and hands-on learning to encompass the full range of engineering process skills in a methodology they call "Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate" (CDIO). The design reorganizes the 50,000 square-foot building to remove barriers among teaching, research, and lab activities. Applying the CDIO approach, the building is zoned functionally, with conceptual work taking place on the upper floors, design occurring on the mid-level floors, implementation taking place in labs on the main floor, and operations testing and fabrication on the lower floor and in the new, 6,000 square-foot student space known as the "hangar."

Renovations replaced shop and library walls with glass partitions, opening up the lab and work spaces to the hallway. A vertical slice of space has been taken out of the center of the building, opening up and connecting the industrial-styled lower level shop and test lab with the more academic environment of the simulation labs and library. The three-story hangar addition supports work on large-sized aerospace assignments and adds new connections to all three levels.

Interior finishes reflect an aerospace engineering aesthetic, utilizing masonry, cable, glass, and metal. The hangar, with its long span roof system, incorporates extensive glazing to give the space a sense of transparency and daylight. The contemporary metal panel system selected for the rear of the building is compatible with the adjoining Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel and the hangar, which creates an industrial character in keeping with engineering processes as well as the other surrounding campus buildings.

Formal name of Project:
MIT Department of Aeronautics/Astronautics
Laboratory for Complex Systems

Location:
Cambridge, Mass.

Gross square footage:
56,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$15.5 million

Owner:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Architect:
Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.
1050 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel 617/492-7000
fax 617/492-7007