Building, Set, Prop
This thesis investigates a self-referential method for the adaptive reuse of architecture. Borrowing terms from theater and film production, Building(,) Set(,) Prop repurposes a Somerville industrial warehouse into an architecture depot for the city by critically translating the existing building finishes and inserting “theatrical” elements conceptualized as “sets”, “props” into the as-found structure. These elements provide storage for physical archive materials, backdrops to curate new civil memories, and spaces for managerial activities. Each category possesses a different life span for inhabitation and interactions.
The project advocates the democratization of cultural heritage and seeks to subvert the traditional archival typology through performative and participatory means. It also raises questions about the visibility of collective knowledge and its public access, eventually blurring the boundary between the “front of house/on the scene” and the “back of house/behind the scene.”
Harvard GSD 2023, Thesis
Advised by John May
Big thank-you to Siyu Zhu, Karen Kuo, Eddie G. Meléndez Merced, Daniel Haidermota, and Brian Zug for production support
A set always has a front and a back. The front is fictional, representational, and two-dimensional. It conveys meanings through what is represented and its interaction between the protagonists. The front is what we’d like to “see.” Meanwhile, the back of a set is functional, tectonic, concealed, messy, and undesirable.
There is an irony presented by the front-back duality in that the “setness” of a set is only legible when both sides are visible or perceivable - a moment of thearticality produced by unveiling a theatrical instrument.
A formally awkward warehouse lies between the Washington street and the MBTA trainline in Somerville, MA, commonly referred to by residents as “the pink building”.
The sprawling giant butts a residential neighborhood to the south and is separated from its industrial clusters to the north. People remember it by its color, texture, length, flatness, and fragmented elevational appearance. But no one knows what is going on behind the walls. Either no window or blocked apertures can be found on its facades. The encounter of the warehouse is not unlike the encounter of a set-front. It is an anonymous and inaccessible backdrop with its “back” hidden from our sight.
This thesis proposes to transform the now vacant former warehouse into an architectural depot for the storage and display of architectural objects - the materialized embodiment of collective memories of the built environment for the Somerville community. The storage spaces and display zones correspond respectively to the “front” and the “back” of the inserted “sets,” which interfere with the existing structure both as a representational and functional element.
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