Building connections with the local community
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
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- Building community
Our buildings frequently contribute to the life of the community beyond the campus. This can be accomplished by providing spaces for community meetings in the new facility or inviting the community to share in some of the ongoing activities in the building.
For MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, our design of the research building included a street-level gallery space and café that are both open to the public. The gallery, which runs the entire length of the building along the City of Cambridge’s Main Street, is a highly visible and accessible space with interactive exhibits that describe the specific research being undertaken, as well as displays of artistic images derived from the research, such as large-scale electron microscope images of cellular structures. The building also includes a large, divisible function space (shown above) for holding events open to the larger research community as well as the public.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s research building for the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) in New Bedford includes an informal gathering space and a flexible meeting room for community meetings. Given the building’s focus on marine research, including ways to increase the health and yield of fish and shellfish, its location in a thriving fishing community, and the inclusion of space for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the meeting room is often used to discuss issues of policy and concern among the local community of fishermen and their families.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford campus, School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST)
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford campus, School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST)
The main entry level of Michigan State University’s Secchia Center for Medical Education in Grand Rapids includes a large space dedicated to community use and meetings among medical education and community representatives.
Michigan State University, Secchia Center for Medical Education
In all of these buildings, the space program was conceived to build connections with the local community in support of the overall institutional mission.