Planning to improvise : design for the Boynton Yards industrial area

Abstract

Assuming the need to transform industrial culture, one might begin with an attempt to re-value the industrial environment itself. While mistrusting those practices that left behind derelict sites and structures, we inherit these artifacts with the obligation to improvise new forms on the themes they establish. Reoccupation of an abandoned industrial area becomes then, a project of recuperation specific to a particular si te and culture. The area under investigation is known as the Boynton Yards in Somerville Massachusetts. From the early 19th century until recently it had been a vital industrial district. Today, the site is largely abandoned. This project proposes to make a gesture of recognition to those physical and cultural norms that formed the site, with the intention of re-valuing its current status. Its potential to function as a zone of spatial and social orientation is exploited in a design for a series of loading docks at the edge the Yards.