25 Village Street project featured in Next City
“With a split-level second floor, high ceilings and generous windows, the house is a photogenic ambassador for the movement to bring prefab housing into urban settings.”
News
25 Village Street prefab house time lapse
We made a time lapse video of the erection of our latest project in Somerville. The house was constructed by Bensonwood in their New Hampshire factory and erected on site with a crane in 3 days.
MIT’s Adèle Naudé Santos stepping down as dean of School of Architecture and Planning
[Adèle Naudé Santos] has decided to step down and return to the faculty, effective at the end of this semester. She is the ninth dean of the school and the second woman to hold the position of school dean at MIT. […]
“I have loved this appointment, because I have loved this school,” said Santos. “The excellent faculty and students I’ve had the honor to collaborate with are more MIT than they’ve ever been: they’re intent on doing interesting research, crossing aisles, and pushing boundaries.” — MIT News
Transbay Affordable Housing Project Breaks Ground
Ground was broken today for a 32-story tower and accompanying low-rise affordable development on Block 6 of the Transbay site on Folsom Street in San Francisco. The tower will house 409 market-rate apartments, and the adjoining eight-story building will provide 70 units of affordable housing. Designed to be LEED Gold-Certified, sustainable features of Block 6 will include solar thermal panels, a resident-controlled cross-ventilation system, and sky parks on every third floor. Occupancy is expected by December 2015.
The project is part of the redevelopment of the area around the former Transbay bus terminal, which was demolished to make way for a much larger, multimodal facility capped by what will become San Francisco’s tallest building, the Transbay Tower. Santos Prescott and Associates is the design architect for the mid-rise affordable project, which will include a community room and retail space on the corner of Folsom and Beale Streets.
23 Village Street featured on Boston’s Curbed
The newly constructed house at 23 Village Street was forged from an old bronze foundry (heh) and designed by M.I.T. architecture dean Adèle Naudé Santos. The main living space is an airy 70 feet long and surrounds a centralized courtyard. Two master suites upstairs cantilever around said courtyard.
Adele Interviewed for Boston Style
You describe MIT as a place where people take a practical, pragmatic approach to solving problems in design. Do you feel similarly about your wardrobe?
I really believe in timeless style so that there’s no date on it. I never attempt to be fashionable in the true sense of the word. The clothes I buy I can wear for 20 years. I can just recycle them. There are designers like Issey Miyake that have some intrinsic quality — fabric used in a special way, the shape of the garment is spectacular — and I can wear it day or evening.
As an architect, you’ve worked on both affordable and luxury housing. What about your fashion purchases?
[Laughs] I think it’s a bit of both. I’m a pragmatist and would rather have lots of choices than just garments that are shockingly expensive. But I’m very interested in fabrics like three-dimensionally sculpted Nuno textiles from Japan. They combine sophisticated technology with crafts traditions.
Your jewelry is gigantic. Is it heavy?
My favorite necklace has these big beaded balls made of lightweight wool. People stop me on the street and ask where I got them. But I’ve got jewelry from India that can break my neck if I’m not careful. — Tina Sutton