The Center for Design Research Open Laboratory – Boston was developed by CDR faculty in collaboration with 2019 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient, PAYETTE, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The collaborative studio, located in the Payette office in Boston, introduces students to Research as Practice. Through an immersive residency in the Payette Open Studio students will interact with over 160 interdisciplinary design professionals as they undertake a semester-long architectural studio project. During the studio project students will uncover potential research opportunities for technology development, transfer, or adoption within the context of an architectural program with topics including: tectonics, tooling, performance, building technology, automation, computational design, human factors, social impact, patient outcomes, and beyond.

Payette is an internationally recognized leader specializing in science and healthcare that utilizes a transdisciplinary collaborative approach to practices that embraces innovation through the mantra that ‘a good idea can come from anyone’. The Open Laboratory-Boston expands this notion by placing students face-to-face with real world design challenges and providing them with the tools that will drive the future of architecture, engineering, and construction –ultimately informing the way we will in symbiosis with our built environment—and in doing so positioning the student as part of that development.

In addition to the immersive studio experience in the office, students will utilize Payette’s Technology Engine, model shop and fabrication facilities, and access to the Center for Design Research’s Innovation Residency relationship with the Autodesk Technology Center in Boston, located adjacent to the Payette in Boston’s Innovation and Design district. Through this engagement students will expand what is possible in the design practice by providing a vehicle for industry responsive applied research that embodies a functional collaboration between academia, design practice, and Industry.

The studio is co-led by Payette President and alumni advisor Kevin Sullivan, FAIA (VT ’87) with support of associates in the Boston offices and Co-Director of the Center for Design Research Nathan King, DDes who will be located in Boston with support of CDR Director Robert Dunay, FAIA.

An information session will be held on Monday March 2nd with additional details to follow.