The Millennial Club Harvard Graduate School of Design, Spring 2017 Advisor Elizabeth Christoforetti
Those of the invincible generation who are diagnosed with Cancer are faced with adversity that forces them to cast aside life milestones for treatment. 70,000 young adults aged 15-39 are diagnosed with Cancer each year, representing 6% of the entire Cancer population according to the National Cancer Institute, and some experts believe that one’s environment could be the culprit. A club for Millennials with Cancer offers a unique opportunity to capture this demographic often ignored by research and redefine what it means to collectively find solace in a club-like setting by challenging the idea of membership implied by mutually shared pain or misfortune as the grounding foundational element for the building’s deployment.
“[Windows can operate as] the advance and retreat of the architectural figure, a two-step performance alternately in front of and among others…”
Early Programmatic and Massing Studies
The Millenial Club will straddle a line between physical mediator and social condenser, by providing a safe-haven from confusion, fear and misinformation. As self-defined program elements emerge, scope-specific spaces can become more flexible by operating less stringently in their end uses. The windows “reframe” the interior by allowing for many operable conditions that imbue the user with much-needed control.
The challenge will be to embrace the hope/fear dialectic -- finding balance in one’s environment through different means -- as there is not one “right” way to manage a cancer diagnosis. By thoroughly identifying the general site-specific conditions and limitations, coupled with the programmatic requirements to sense inherent opportunities, this concept can be pursued further. There will be many opportunities in confronting these challenges through art, dance, information, and nature -- all elements contributing to the mission of extending and improving the quality of life.
Early site inspiration and sketches
“[Windows act as the] Threshold between nature and the human body”
“To have Cancer at that time in your life presents tremendous challenges in an environment that is already challenging, so in order to take care of these patients effectively we have to address the environment, not just their medical aspect... we need models that can be replicated not just in the major cancer centers, but in the communities as well.”
