Institution 2
Boston, MA

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Turning the Tables is a proposal for a triptych of conjoined structures, stitched together with a very long communal table. The over-sized kitchen table passes through a series of three cascading volumes, each framing an interior atrium of a distinct character. These atria are shaped by the typological demands of each respective program of assembly; the forum; the cafe; and the theater.

The Community Land Trust proposes the utilization of a second kind of CLT; a Cross-Laminated Timber structural system. Composed as a series of largescale, prefabricated, solid engineered wood panels, the interior and exterior walls are load bearing and monolithic. The offcuts from the facade and interior grid frame are used to build the table, which exists in a transitional space between architecture and furniture.

The plan is bound at its edges by a 1.5’ wide, 42” high counter, and defined at the center by a 3’ wide, 28” high table. The perimeter counter space provides quieter and more secluded locations for individual work, study, practice, or contemplation. The central table offers a wider surface for collective activity; performing together, eating together, and conversing together. The centripetal nature of the plan recognizes the impossibility of deep communion without a counterpart of privacy and solitude.