The site is a parallelogram shape that situates at the boundary of Charles Town of Boston, between the stretched large scale urban fabric of the highway and the community college and the dense small scale urban fabric of the residential area. There is a 3.6-meter height difference between the front street and the back street of the site. The building aims to provide a common public space that can be shared both by the residents of Charlestown and the community college students.

The building is consisted of six identical curved Vierendeel trusses that span across the site to provide the height and layout flexibility for various sports activities. The placements of the trusses are sheared by the parallelogram of the site, registering the force of the site boundary at the same time intensifies the objectiveness of the trusses. A pedestrian footbridge shoots out from the third floor of the building, connecting the community college main campus to the library and classrooms of the new building.

There is a pedestrian bridge shooting from the third floor of the building, connecting directly the library and student center to the original footbridge of the main campus. The bridge is also open to the public. By integrating the building and the bridge formally and functionally as a unified one, the building itself becomes a urban connector, linking and activating the dense residential area behind the main road, which currently is severed from the rest of the larger urban fabrics.

The cavity of the Vierendeel trusses is used as circulatory corridors, and occasionally they become study cells for the students. In between the trusses, there are large columnless spaces which can either be used as open library spaces or classrooms and auditoriums. Looking from in between the trusses, the curved trusses appear to be disappearing from the horizon of the floor slabs, constantly leaving the visitors a sense of vicarious wonder to be drawn toward. The floor slabs are sheared by the slantness of the curved platform. The rooms remains rectangular where is slope is gentle, and becomes sheared into parallelogram when the slope is steep in order to optimize the clear height.

The floor underneath the trusses is hanged by the tension cables, they are hidden away from the first encounter of the building. From the street perspective, the second floor is condensed to a thin plinth with limited height for internal spaces. The interior of the second floor is a large open library space, with its disappearing horizon, generating similar vicarious effect to the upstairs.

The ground floor is consisted of three stripes, the one on the right is the sports court, the one in the center is the student lounge. Next to the student lounge is an outdoor walkway that connects the library entrance to the lower front street. On the left is the library entrance, a gallery space, and back of house offices. These public spaces are sheltered by the slanted standing seam metal roofs that fomally resonates with the repetitive roofs in between the trusses. The goal is to engender a vicarious wonder on the recurring building elements.

The trusses are extended beyond the second floor plinth, invading the realm of the street. The skins are peeled open at the end, revealing the seemingly inhabitable trusses, but in a steep angle that appears to be dangerous to occupy. Thus arousing the sense of vicarious experience. During the night, the cantilevering beams will become light boxes, as a series of floating beacon.
‍
Five Principle of Vicarious Forms:
I. Forms that resist immediate comprehension of their internal organization;
II. Forms that suggest motional trajectory;
III. Forms with diverse functions that recurrently show similar visual structures;
IV. Forms that capture the dichotomic tension between the interior and exterior;
V. Peculiar positioning of volumes that appear to be inhabitable.


该项目基地为一个平行四边形，位于波士顿查尔斯敦边界，介于高速公路和社区学院的大规模城市肌理与密集的住宅区之间。基地前后街道存在3.6米的高差。建筑旨在提供一个可供查尔斯敦居民和社区学院学生共享的公共空间。建筑由六个相同的曲线形空腹桁架组成，横跨整个基地，为多种体育活动提供场地布局的灵活性。

一座人行天桥从建筑的三层延伸出来，连接社区学院主校园与新建筑的图书馆和教室。天桥也向公众开放。通过形式和功能上整合建筑与天桥，建筑本身成为一个城市连接器，连接并激活主干道后方缺少社区公共空间的密集住宅区。空腹桁架的空腔被用作交通走廊和自习空间。桁架之间是无柱的大空间，可用作开放式图书馆、教室或报告厅。从桁架间望去，曲线桁架似乎从楼板的地平线上消失，不断给置身建筑中的人一种未知的奇妙感。楼板随着曲线桁架的曲率产生高差变化，坡度较缓的地方，房间保持矩形；坡度较陡的地方，房间被剪切成平行四边形，以获得最大净高。

桁架下的二楼楼板通过悬索悬挂，悬索空间在建筑的外部是被隐匿的。从街道的角度看，二楼被压缩成一个高度有限的层间板。二楼内部是一个大型开放式图书馆空间，随着地平线的消失，产生与三楼类似的奇妙感受。地面层分为三条带状区域，右侧是运动场，中间是学生休息区，学生休息区旁边是连接图书馆入口与前街的室外步道。左侧是图书馆入口、展览空间和后勤办公室。这些公共空间被斜向的直立锁边屋面覆盖，形式上与桁架间的单坡屋顶相呼应。

桁架延伸至二楼基座之外，侵入街道领域。建筑皮层在末端被剥开，露出桁架的内部空间，其角度陡峭，似乎不能进入，从而引发一种间感式体验的奇妙感。在夜间，悬臂梁将成为灯箱，像一系列浮动的灯塔。

间感式建筑五原则：
1. 抵抗可被立即理解内部组织的建筑造型；
2. 暗示使用者在建筑中可能的行动轨迹的形式；
3. 功能多样但视觉结构重复的形式；
4. 彰显建筑内部与外部对立张力的形式；
5. 位置奇特，似乎可被进入和使用的建筑体块。