Empa Aerogel Architecture Award Winning Project 2024
A New Roof for Gund Hall
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Michael Chang x Adrian Corbey
Gund Hall is the home to Harvard University Graduate School of Design. This John
Andrews-designed brutalist building opened in 1970 and has become an icon for the university,
the history of American architecture education, and an inspiration to young designers worldwide.
However, the ambitions of Andrew's roof design juxtapose a series of design issues that still
need to be addressed.
Although the roof system allows natural light into the studio space, the glazing system is subject
to frequent leaking that has damaged the building and student work since its opening.
Additionally, the skylights are narrow and are only perceivable from a single direction of view.
Therefore, the building relies heavily on artificial lighting, even during the day.
Our intervention resolves roof leakage of water and outside unconditioned air while providing a
universal sky lighting solution that mitigates the need for artificial light during the day and evenly
distributes light across the entire building. We utilize aerogel in the roof as a comprehensive
solution for insulation, waterproofing, and natural lighting demands:
1. Reduce the roof structure to its elemental trusses.
2. Girder secondary arches atop the original truss to support a parametric roof plane.
3. Discretize the surface into a grid of aerogel-insulated ETFE cushions to insulate the
building and modulate and soften light as it enters the studio space.
By doing this, we create a new, more functional roof plane above the existing structure while
preserving the expression of the iconic stepping in the retained structural skeleton.
