Frei Universität was used as a precedent study to understand the concept of mat buildings. The university is organized along four parallel corridors that direct the major flow of traffic, perpendicular to those are secondary corridors that guide intra-departmental circulation, tertiary and quaternary corridors break down the department further into offices, labs and lecture halls.
Common use rooms, restrooms, study halls, large lecture rooms and rec spaces are all organized along the first order halls. While the mat appears to be a homogenous mix of spaces, there are six openings left in the mat to provide outdoor rec space and to allow views between the departments. Two or three departments share each opening, fostering interdepartmental interaction.
The analysis of the university was reinterpreted into an artifact, a desk drawer that operates much the same way as the building. Four central rails arrange organizing trays that hold various desk items. The trays come in 6 sizes to accommodate various items.
Three items remain fixed in the arrangement, a slab of marble, a patch of faux grass and a small sand garden each provide a whimsical moment in the desk organizer to hearken back to its inspiration and recall the rec spaces of Frei Univeristät.
The concepts of the mat building were used to develop a plan for a community complex in Ithaca, New York. The complex contains four dance studios, office spaces, a café and a theater that spills out into the open space between the volumes in the summer months.
Studies for the community center took into consideration a future plan for the block. The major corridors that form the two hallways of the center are parallel to three other imagined corridors that would extend the logic of the dance center into the vacant space adjacent to it.
Massing models explored various configurations for those future clusters.