Housing, Powerplant 2005

Harvard Graduate School of Design
Professor: Richard Sommer


This project attempts to explore the reciprocity between the architectural object and its context by erasing the polarity of public and private space. Instead, it works at varying scales to allow different appropriations of contiguous open spaces.

The units capture pockets of shared areas between themselves, but also are infiltrated by the public stairs which serve the role of spatial partitions. The sky lounges also refocus the view from the building, allowing a greater packing of the buildings against the powerplant.

The entire building works in a similar way; the main lobby is an interchange, serving both as an extension of the public paths, and also as a hub for the apartment complex. The varying public spaces are always dependent on the buldings for their character.

At the scale of the city, the project acts as a foil for the powerplant. It draws attention but also situates it and gives it a scale.