This playful, inhabitable, public sculpture was created as part of an Architecture & Construction Summer Studio program for Boston high school students. Led by Parke MacDowell, the program was a collaboration between local non-profits Digital Ready and Beyond Walls with the support of PAYETTE and other civic and industry sponsors. The five-week program provided 22 Boston students with stipends and college credits while developing design skills through sketching, lectures, digital modeling and hands-on fabrication. Each student completed a portfolio documenting their efforts including our large public sculpture, BeND.
BeND
Public Sculpture
Project Statistics
LOCATION
Boston, MA / United States
COMPLETED
2022
Team
Parke MacDowell, AIA
Architect
Christine Eichhorn
Designer
Sandrine Heroux
Associate/Fabrication Manager
Sophie McKenzie
Designer/Fabricator
Hands-on Experience
BeND is 8’ wide and 40’ long and provided hands-on experience with the design/build process to each student. While immersed in their first architectural design studio, apprentices developed their carpentry skills building the undulating wooden deck on a bent tube steel structure and tagged the piece using stencils they designed. Playfully “misbehaving,” the project invites use and prompts conversation about how architecture predisposes behavior in our shared public spaces.
