Kendall MIT Canopy

The Kendall / MIT Canopy is a reflective canopy that serves as a gateway between MIT’s East Campus and Kendall Square, and envelopes the Kendall T stop. The illuminated structure embodies the unique spirit of the MIT community, with dynamic lighting designed to simultaneously represent and inspire the birth of new ideas at MIT.  

The Canopy’s lights are algorithmically driven, revealing perpetually evolving combinations of movement and color that change over the course of each day and night. The lights flow, collide, combine, and interact in surprising ways, embodying the MIT community's synthesis of ideas into solutions to the world's most challenging problems.

We collaborated with NADAAA and Perkins & Will to create an elegant union of material and technology that blurs the boundaries between the digital layer and the physical object. The interplay between light and materiality is so seamless that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the physical from the digital.  

The Canopy is a remarkable contribution to the Open Spaces initiative, which aims to transform underutilized outdoor spaces into active, engaging, and functional areas that foster creativity, socialization, and relaxation. The Canopy's dynamic lighting celebrates the innovative spirit of the MIT community and its dedication to solving the world's most pressing issues.

Client

MITMCO

MBTA

Collaborators

NADAA

Perkins & Will

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

Standard Vision

Services

Installations & Placemaking

Creative Direction

Software Development