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| steven holl simmons hall at the MIT the urban concept provides amenities to students within the dormitory such as a 125 seat theater, as well as a night cafe. house dining is on street level, like a street front restaurant with a special awning and outdoor tables. the corridors connecting the rooms are like streets which happen upon urban experiences. the 'perfcon' structure is a unique design, allowing for maximum flexibility and interaction. the overall building mass has five large scale openings. these roughly correspond to main entrances, view corridors, and the main outdoor activity terraces of the dormitory connected to programs such as the gymnasium. each of the dormitory’s single rooms has nine operable windows . the depth of the wall naturally shades out the summer sun, while allowing the low angled winter sun in to help heat the building. in the deep setting of the numerous windows color is applied to the head and jamb creating identity for each of the ten 'houses' within the overall building. the night light from the 9-window rooms will be magical and exciting. the facade of the M.I.T. dorm was partly inspired, holl has said, by the sponge he was bathing with one morning. 'a sponge can absorb several times its weight in liquid without changing its appearance. cast glass seems to trap light within its material. its translucency or transparency maintains a glow of reflected light, refracted light or the light dispersed on adjacent surfaces. this intermeshing of material properties and optic phenomena opens a field for exploration. ' holl says. the sponge concept for the new undergraduate residence hall transforms a porous building morphology via a series of programmatic and bio-technical functions. http://web.mit.edu/evolving/projects/simmons/index.html ---
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 simmons hall at the MIT (massachusetts institute of technology) the facade of the new dormitory was inspired, in part, by a bathroom sponge. courtesy steven holl architects  work in progress of the simons hall, a 350 bed dormitory with dining hall, auditorium, and other shared facilities courtesy steven holl architects  simons hall, construction to be completed in fall 2002 courtesy steven holl architects  work in progress at simmons hall courtesy steven holl architects  architectural model of simmons hall at the MIT courtesy steven holl architects |
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