METRIC CONFLUENCE
CAMBRIDGE, USA
Typology: Performing Arts Center
Year: 2025
Type: Academic
Supervisor: Iman Fayyad
Metric Confluence is a community music and performance center organized through the musical concept of the polyrhythm: two opposing rhythms operating simultaneously and periodically realigning.
This logic structures the circulation as two parallel ramp systems: a rhythm of 3 beats per measure for the university students, and a rhythm of 2 beats per measure for the public. This creates the 3:2 polyrhythm. The circulations drift out of sync and then realign, creating a spatial pulsation. Each maintains singular access to its programs, while moments of synchronization produce shared spaces. At the theatres, the circulations are intentionally misaligned, forming offset balconies that allow visual connection between students and the public, without physical overlap.
The building bridges the city and the university with an open ground floor for performance and exhibition, rising through auditoriums, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, and offices. At the final realignment, a shared space opens into the public theatre. The divide between circulation and program is expressed through the massing where two rectangular volumes split apart, both floating above the public corridor.