A New Building will Support Research & Maximize Interaction

The challenge in expanding MIT's world-renowned Wiesner Building was to increase its size without altering its dynamics. Designed by I.M. Pei and Partners in 1985, the Wiesner Building, which houses the MIT Media Lab and the List Visual Arts Center, has become legendary for the idea making that thrives in its laboratories, meeting rooms, and gallery spaces. Faculty and students who have worked in this landmark building over the last 20 years believe that it fosters an intellectual cross-fertilization not found in a conventional academic environment.

In response to the requirements of this inventive subculture, a team headed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki and executive architects Leers Weinzapfel Associates has designed an ingenious connecting structure that will support research and maximize interaction. The 163,000-square-foot building will link to the existing facility on several floors and will provide exhibition and performance space. Top floor meeting rooms will accommodate seminars and research colloquia.

A delicate floating structure of glass and metal rods, the building is designed as a sequence of interlocking double-height spaces. The nine flexible laboratories that flank the atrium will be fully visible to passers-by. Clustering rows of offices around the labs will further encourage creative interaction. Transparent partitions will emphasize the open plan, offering extended sight lines through the building in every direction so that multiple activities can be seen from any vantage point.

Together with the existing Wiesner Building, the complex will also house the Office of the Arts, the Council for the Arts, the List Visual Arts Center, the SA+P's Design Lab and Center for Advanced Visual Studies, the Department of Architecture's Visual Arts Program, as well as MIT's Program in Comparative Media Studies.

The building will incorporate the Okawa Center for Future Children, made possible by a $27 million donation from Isao Okawa, Chairman of CSK Corporation and Sega Enterprises Ltd. The Okawa Center, viewed as a sort of "Media Lab for kids," will be dedicated to transforming the ways in which children live, learn, and play in the digital age.