Organized in 2005, CUBE design + research, LLC is a design practice centered on big ideas in a connected world. Our educational & professional experience encompasses architecture, construction management & urban design.

Architecture is a profession of practice. So what does an architect do? A typical project involves working with:
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For the Hayden project we studied the building’s functional evolution and overlaid the significant regional and architectural history.  Our initial strategy was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the building and its architect so that we could reinterpret the project in a contemporary manner while sustaining its original qualities.

 

 

 

 

 

This article discusses one of our arguments for more creative and challenging play structures.  They should be safe, but they don’t have to be boring.  Any design problem includes the tug-of-war between aesthetics and function. The design of play structures is no different.  They should be both visually stimulating and cognitively challenging.  This article discusses how ‘modern’ play structures have been adversely affected by legal and safety standards throughout the years to the point where they are becoming obsolete.

The Blues transcended from a secluded rural environment to a dense urban one, and eventually to an international arena, without losing its roots.  This project utilizes contemporary “traces” to tell the story.  By no means complete, the Blues Histogram weaves cultural, genealogical, technological and migrational lineages into a unified and tangible format.

We recently ran across the Ghost Houses by curb architects Ted Shelton and Tricia Stuth in Tennessee.  This project recreates two new historic sibling homes along side a third existing historic house. Using memories embedded in photographs, newspaper articles, longtime neighborhood resident accounts, and census data they re-presented what once was in a beautiful dialogue of now and then.

Our second constructed cubePLAY structure was done for a benefit in Tampa, FL to raise fund for the Outdoors Foundation. A local daycare secured the winning auction bid!

Stuff-We-Find-in-Historic-Buildings #2: On Preservation and Pornography at the Hayden Building

HBI is pleased to announce the selection of CUBE Design + Research as the architectural team that will be responsible for designing the upper story residential units at the 1875 Hayden Building. Last week CUBE’s principals Jason Hart, Chris Johns and Aaron Malnarick presented a compelling proposal to HBI staff and board members on how they would handle the design of the units while dealing with challenging structural bracing and circulation patterns unique to the long and narrow building footprint…. more

PROJECT

University of Massachusetts Lowell Dormitory proposal   |   Collaboration with DiMella Shaffer

 

LOCATION

Lowell, MA

 

CLIENT

University of Massachusetts

 

STATS

500 bed dormitory

 

A new dormitory to house 500 students on the University of Massachusetts campus in Lowell.  The proposal seeks to establish a distinct pedestrian corridor by uniting the north and south campuses with its segregated and expanding east campus.  Taking cues from local mill buildings, the dorm is expressed as a sinuous masonry form with a raised central quadrangle concealing the parking below.

We helped our friends at Aspinwall Partners prepare a logo for the MIT Center for Real Estate Competition.  Fairly self-explanatory, but for the sake of being post-worthy, the pixels stack to build the word ‘case’ alluding to the hand of the developer.