The Design Incubator is an exploration programmatic extremism by Boston architect and designer Alan Lu. The Design Incubator is a performance theatre by definition, but an atypical one at that. Lu embraces the existing vertical structure the Design Incubator is built around and used it to create a theatre that shifts the focus of performance to it’s production. The result is  the Design Incubator, a theatre of production.

In many of Lu’s designs, the exterior form is characterized by fluid curves; and the Design Incubator is no different. This particular design however borrows more from the physical characteristics of textiles than of a liquid substance like the majority of Lu’s designs. The rubber exterior appears as if it was draped over the existing vertically arranged ice storage facility like a blanket or cloth would. The exterior drape is lifted and pinned to reveal the entrance to the theatre, thus revealing the structure’s program.

The interior design is an angular and geometric cluster of floating staircases and platforms. The black and white scheme, another theme in Lu’s designs, creates contrasts and accentuates strong angular lines of the layout that as a whole contrast with the organic-looking skin. The tall theatre cavity is bore into the structure from the top down and penetrates down into seven of the eight storeys. The height of the theatre cavity would allow for a high degree of flexibility in performance space and audience viewing arrangements.

via suckerPUNCH