Community Fabrication Lab

Northeastern University Graduation Thesis 

Boston, MA.

Collaboration with Ali Sherif

Spring 2018

Tutor: Michael Leblanc

This project departs from a multi-scalar site analysis which addresses and highlights the existing urban conditions and relevant socioeconomic phenomena in Downtown Boston. These were crucial in defining an absence and informing a response to this context that could contribute to place making in what we identified as the Greenway’s dead end.

In order to prepare against high flood risk that is due to Boston’s history of man-made landfill, the site becomes a programmatic bowl that can help with water management as well as create a sectional buffer zone between the Central Artery and site users. 

The site then disposes of different programmatic elements that are sectionally dispersed in order to be usable at different intensities of flooding.

We employed a tri-partite glue laminated timber frame that allows for flexibility in plan and in section. This structure aims to be flexible for different programs by providing a wide column free space that can host a myriad of plan strategies.