discipline
category
location
year
with guidance from
architecture
installation
cambridge, ma
2023
diego grass
shingo masuda
on the first floor of harvard graduate school of design, seven monumental concrete columns stand in a precise rhythm, surrounded each day by design students learning to imagine new buildings and futures. beside each column is an existing electrical outlet, a small piece of infrastructure that, through my research, emerged as one of the most important needs identified by people experiencing homelessness.
the project adds almost nothing. curtains borrowed from the gsd’s piper auditorium wrap around the columns, suspended from the ceiling with custom-designed fittings. a sleeping surface provides a place to rest, and each house includes a phone charging cable. another borrowed curtain closes the library entrance leading to its lower level. two simple wooden doors separate the first floor from the upper floors at night, allowing students to continue studying above while the ground floor becomes a temporary shelter.
with these minimal additions, seven columns become seven temporary houses for people experiencing homelessness.
seven houses asks how little architecture is needed to make shelter, bringing a privileged discipline into contact with architecture’s most basic necessity: a place to sleep.