Architectural Design, Level II: Material and Tectonic Transformations: The Herreshoff Museum
An MIT architecture studio built around transforming the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, once home to Herreshoff Manufacturing, a leading builder of America's Cup racing yachts from the 1890s through the 1930s. Students work through processes of erasure and addition, treating the site as a study of land, water, and wind. Land supplies stasis, docking and anchoring; water suggests fluidity and movement; wind becomes the force that negotiates between the two. The course materials include studio briefs, design assignments, and project reviews that push students to express these physical relationships materially and structurally rather than just programmatically. It suits students with some architectural design background who want to see how a real site with an industrial maritime history can generate a semester-long design investigation. No certificate is offered, consistent with MIT OpenCourseWare's open publication of course materials.