Harvard GSD Studio: The American Plan / Site: Cambridge Common / Professor: Kersten Geers & David Van Severen
The site is located on Cambridge Common, a public park that contains a fragmented collection of monuments. Two prominent monuments anchor the site: George Washington’s Gate and the Civil War monument, aligned along a central axis. The Radcliffe Institute and Harvard University surround the park, with the park serving as a transitional zone between the two institutions.
The proposal is a learning center that extends this axis, linking the Washington Gate and the Civil War monument, and serves as a defining end to the park. It also bridges the gap between the bustling corner of Massachusetts Avenue and the Radcliffe Institute. The program is a nature lab, a place to engage with objects from the natural world - a cabinet of curiosities.
A house in the park. The design of the building is reminiscent of a house that both stretches and reframes its territory. It consists of a series of interconnected rooms linked by a central hallway. The rooms are constructed with a standard wood frame, finished in stone, while the hallway is made of concrete.
The learning center acts like a camera that fragments the site. Through frames, it collects pieces of its natural environments, from the trees to the church towers, and recomposes it with objects within the cabinets, drawing a parallel between the construction of the interior and exterior environment.
