Article source:  Bentel and Bentel Architects

The new ‘Ground’ cafe, at Yale’s Marcel Breuer-designed Becton School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (‘SEAS’), serves not only to create social cohesion among faculty and students of the engineering school, but also to encourage interaction between and among members of other departments in the University. In the design, the firm engaged the unadorned poured-concrete volume of this former seminar room by layering a palette of walnut planks, perforated aluminum, and cleft bluestone over the walls, floor, and ceiling of the space. The original concrete surfaces are intentionally visible through, and are highlighted by, the veils of the material intervention out of respect for Breuer’s unique exploration in his design of the textural possibilities of a single material.

Image Courtesy © Daniel Stark

• Architects: Bentel and Bentel Architects
• Project: Ground at Yale University
• Location: New Haven, Connecticut
• Photography: Daniel Stark
• Deputy Dean: Vincent Wilczynski, Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science

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