The Harvard ArtLab, designed by Barkow Leibinger in collaboration with Sasaki, features a unique one-story “pinwheel-like” plan. It consists of a series of studios, workshops, and media spaces that surround a central “Hub” space. The Hub can be opened and closed by four large sliding partitions, enabling performances and exhibitions. The structure is built with lightweight steel columns and open web steel trusses on a concrete slab, making it both energy-efficient and adaptable. The exterior is clad in transparent insulated glass and high-insulating polycarbonate panels, which range from transparent to opaque. This design allows the building to exploit natural light during the day and glow like a “lightbox” at night. Completed in 2019, the building also includes lightweight steel columns, and open web steel trusses.The ArtLab serves as a cross-curriculum space for the arts, designed to be curated and adapted by its users. It provides recording studios, sound-editing stations, and rooms for rehearsal, improvisation, and informal performance. The ArtLab encourages interdisciplinary arts-practice research and serves as a collaborative activator for the school and the greater Allston and Cambridge neighborhoods. It aims to expand participants’ engagement with the arts and foster a sense of community through its versatile and interactive spaces.
