Architecture

The adaptive reuse of the historic Metropolitan Warehouse into the home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning has been named the “2026 Project of the Year” by The Architect’s Newspaper. The metropolitan Warehouse transformation “embodies what the future of the practice can and should look like, a willingness to use what’s already there, and to do so creatively, elegantly, and in a way that actually preserves the elements with the most embodied carbon,” note the editors of Architect’s Newspaper.  

Boston Business Journal reporter Grant Welker and photographer Gary Higgins visit the renovated Metropolitan Warehouse, now home to MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, to learn more about how the 130-year-old storage facility was transformed. Prof. John Ochsendorf describes how the renovation process included preserving construction mementos such as strategic openings and cutaways that reveal historic “building archeology.” “We think of this building as a living laboratory for students,” says Ochsendorf. “It’s a teaching tool for future architects.” 

In an interview with Nature’s David Adam, Prof. Carlo Ratti discusses design elements he believes architects should focus on in the age of AI, emphasizing how citizens, not algorithms, should be the architects  of the future. “One important thing that AI can do is show us on a large scale where a city fails people. Combining the computer vision used to identify problems with public images gives us the chance to do something about them,” Ratti explains. He adds: “Many of the best ideas about cities have come from people disagreeing with one another in the same room—from cafes to council chambers. If algorithms learn what people like and simply give us more of it, or if software agents start negotiating with other agents on our behalf, we could lose those encounters.” 

Metropolis reporter Anthony Paletta details how MIT’s inaugural Future Fest “brought together visionary leaders across design, technology, and art to address the world’s most pressing problems.” The festival featured the public debut of the redesigned Metropolitan Warehouse, along with conversations, exhibits and demonstrations on architecture, design and technology. “There are no shortage of things going wrong in the world, and others likely to follow,” writes Paletta, “but MIT’s Future Fest offered reassuring proof that we’ve not run out of means to address these problems.” 

The newly renovated, historic Metropolitan Warehouse, home to MIT’s School of Architecture + Planning “has become a teaching tool” for students who can look up at features such as the “cutaways of the terra cotta subway arches vaulting across the old building’s ceilings” and “understand what structural engineers were thinking 130 years ago,” writes Bloomberg’s Anthony Flint. “The whole multiyear process for rehabbing the Met has been left delightfully legible.”  

For The Architectural Record, reporter Izzy Kornblatt details how the Metropolitan Warehouse was converted into the MIT School of Architecture + Planning’s signature building, a reimagining that “makes the case for the reconstituting of existing structures as a creative act of design.” Kornblatt notes: “The completion of this project also marks a repositioning of design within both MIT and Cambridge. The building gives the School of Architecture and Planning distinctness—a perceptible structure of its own. Yet one of the project’s aims...is to frame design as a set of practices and techniques that are as relevant for scientists and start-up founders as they are for architects.”   

Using AI, satellite, and ocean current data, MIT spinout Coastal Assembly constructs artificial reefs designed to help rebuild beaches restore shrinking beaches, writes Fast Company’s Adele Peters. “We take 10 years of data, and we say, where do we predict the critical areas of erosion will be in the coming months to year,” says Prof. Skylar Tibbits, co-founder of Coastal Assembly. “That tells me where the best place is to intervene—what’s the part that is most critical, where we should focus our time, effort, and money.” 

New York Times reporter Quinn Glabicki highlights Coastal Assembly, an MIT spinout that uses AI, satellite and ocean current data to monitor communities threatened by coastal erosion and create underwater structures to regrow beaches at nearly 900 coastal sites. “We can go to any community around the world and understand what has happened and then propose a solution that is very precisely tailored to them,” says Prof. Skylar Tibbits, one of Coastal Assembly’s founders.  

The New York Times’ Christopher Hawthorne highlights the Metropolitan Warehouse as “the new central hub for the School of Architecture and Planning.” Hawthorne notes that by “slicing into the brick exterior of the warehouse a la Gordon Matta-Clark, the architects have added giant windows while hanging new studio spaces from the existing ceiling. This is adaptive reuse with some bite.”  

In a video short, The Boston Globe’s Daniel Kool spotlights “The Living Bucentaur,” a parade of 250 people dressed in repurposed sail cloth to celebrate the opening of the School of Architecture and Plannings’ new home in the Metropolitan Warehouse. “In 1916, when MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge, they built this elaborate barge called Bucentaur. It was white and it had this beautiful decoration with angels and stucco and everyone was wearing costumes and waving tea squares,” says Prof. Azra Aksamija. “This project is in a way a reenactment.”  

MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) Dean Hashim Sarkis speaks to WBZ News Radio’s Emma Friedman about “The Living Bucentaur,” the Sept. 8 procession made up of 250 people, to SA+P’s new home in the redesigned Metropolitan Warehouse. “This is really a very conscious reenactment of the moment that MIT decided to move to Cambridge from Boston,” says Sarkis. “After all, moving into this building is an act of renewal.” 

Priti Paul ‘90, director of Apeejay Surrendra Group, and her sister Priya, chairperson and executive director of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, are honored on Forbes’ list of “Women Hospitality Leaders Who Should’ve Been In The Room,” by Jacques Ledbetter. Paul has led Apeejay’s “real estate and design work and helped shape projects across the family enterprise,” writes Ledbetter. “Together, they [Priti and Priya] represent the ownership, design and operating sides of hospitality in India.”  

Prof. John Fernández joins Edgar B. Herwick, host of GBH’s “The Curiosity Desk,” to discuss Singapore’s success creating sustainable infrastructure, from having two thirds of buildings in Singapore certified green to constructing covered walkways for public spaces, and enhancing biodiversity in the city. “They have been, for many decades, very intent on being a resource efficient country,” says Fernández. “These incremental improvements go a long way towards reducing energy consumption and emissions.”  

MIT researchers have developed a design tool to highlight the environmental factors that can reduce anxiety, homesickness and boredom during long-duration stays in space, writes Earth.com’s Luis Arrais. “Much like how in our homes the arrangement of our furniture, the size of our rooms, the people we live with, even the shelves we use to store our belongings all contribute to our sense of wellbeing,” says graduate student Mich Lin. 

In a Financial Times opinion piece, Prof. Carlo Ratti discusses alternatives to implementing traditional air conditioning systems, which move rather than reduce heat, that could be used in Europe as temperatures continue to rise. “The best answer, then, is a mixed system, co-ordinated in real time, with sensors to track temperature, occupancy and demand, and algorithms deciding when to produce, store and distribute cooling in step with the electricity grid,” writes Ratti.