Kendall Garage in Massachusetts by French 2D

Article source: French 2D 

Bostonbased architecture studio French 2D was commissioned to create a graphic facade to wrap an existing garage structure in Kendall Square. The studio sought to design a pattern that could transform and speak across scales, reflecting the location of the project between a residential neighborhood and the rapidly growing technology hub of Kendall Square.

The resulting largescale graphic scrim, measuring 26,000 square feet, employs a tensionframe and mesh fabric facade system by Facid North America, and was engineered and installed by Design Communications, Ltd. Its pattern is a play on architectural detail and shadow effects that are meant to swirl, drift, and articulate into 'characters' along the garage's long side, blurring and expanding the boundaries of twodimensional and threedimensional perception. The design manifests as a hybrid between largescale canvas and functional façade.

Image Courtesy © john horner

• Architects: French 2D
• Project: Kendall Garage
• Location: Massachusetts, USA
• Photography: john horner
  
• Facade System: Facid North America
  
• Engineering and Installation: Design Communications, Ltd.
  

Image Courtesy © john horner

Cofounder Jenny French explains, “In this project, we are playing with the relationship between the drawing and the building. An exciting moment for us is seeing through the image from within the garage and realizing that you are now inside the drawing.”

In order to consolidate the reading of the structure as a single icon for its changing context in the Cambridge neighborhood, French 2D sought to present a protobuilding that could be read through the multiscale articulation of its facade, as both applied decoration and object. For the photography of the completed work, the French sisters acted as their own drawing scale figures in custom dresses of the same pattern as the garage.

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

French 2D cofounder Anda French expresses that “we are most interested in the moments of tension in architectural and graphics work where new, imagined, or recaptured depth emerges and can redefine a project. We played in the zone of contextual scale – loosely translating windows, doors and buildinglike objects with multiple cast shadows to produce a surreal quality. And in the architectural photography we ourselves became loosely translated scale figures, wandering the site as freed pieces of the drawing.”

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Design Highlights:

• French 2D designed a graphic facade to wrap an existing garage structure in Kendall Square, Cambridge
• The largescale graphic scrim measures 26,000 square feet and employs a tensionframe and mesh fabric facade system
• Its pattern is a play on architectural detail and shadow effects that are meant to swirl, drift, and articulate into 'characters' along the garage's long side, blurring and
• expanding the boundaries of two dimensional and threedimensional perception
• For the photography of the completed work, the French sisters acted as their own drawing scale figures in custom dresses of the same pattern as the garage

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © john horner

Image Courtesy © French 2D

Image Courtesy © French 2D

Tags: Massachusetts, USA

Category: Garage

This entry was posted on Monday, June 17th, 2019 at 7:33 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.