MIT SITE 4

This project is a new dorm for MIT designed by NADAA. Visible as soon as you exit Kendall Square stop off the Boston Red Line.

Inspiired by the “Cafe Wall” illusion, the facade’s angled panels come in threes and staggered as it rides up the building with an angled cornice capping every 3 floors. The subtle difference in color gradient to create the illusion of a light-weight tower despite its mass.

Fabrication

One of the major challenge for the geometry and design of the facade lies with its management of water shedding. With the complicated geometry in the New England climate requires weep holes to ensure its longevity. Moreover, the flyby geometry at the corners of the building requires extra checks to ensure minimal lethal snow buildup.

The PMU is a section of the actual design fabricated and assembled in the way as it wouuld for the actual building. This PMU served as both a VMU as well. The wall system is tested for water leaks as well as air leaks.

The entire mega panel system is very similar to a curtain wall system except with less glazaing. The perimeter of the wall framing is a propiretary track/chicken head/gasket system with steel framing filling out the rest. These mega units (wall strips) are hung onto preinstalled embed and anchor systems around the slab edge.

The hanging process requires production, transportation, and crane positiions to be well coordinated. The order of the units going on the building is determined/confirmed during design.