The burnished copper colouring of 2 Harbor reflects a proud heritage of the marine industry. We talk to Handel Architects’ David Woshinsky about designing a new-generation beacon for life sciences research on the fast-changing South Boston waterfront.

2 Harbor is unmistakably contemporary but also very much of its place. How does your building respond to its context?

The project is located on the edge of Marine Industrial Park, right next to the Boston Seaport Innovation District. It’s an area of the city that was historically industrial. Today, shipbuilding, dry docks and the fishing industry coexist alongside knowledge-based and creative uses, like life sciences headquarters and the Boston Design Center. Our design not only references existing warehouses and materiality, but also leans into the dynamic movement of expressively folded metal.

The copper-toned finish of the main elevation was chosen to pick up the light on the building’s multifaceted fins, which are torqued to create a sense of movement and bring complexity and depth.

Can you describe the processes of modelling and constructing the fins?

Our starting point was the grid framework and the environmental goal of a solid-to-glazed ratio of 60:40. We were thinking about shape but also about shadow and the play of light across the facades over the course of the day. The design morphed from straight rectangular lines to a triangular profile and then evolved to more complex folded forms.

It's a unitised curtain wall system, factory fabricated in Canada in typical sections of around 13 ft high and 4–8ft wide. Our design is conceived a bit like origami – the fin forms are created out of scored and folded aluminium sheets and then coated in liquid PVDF in a custom-matched shade based on the colour of copper mica. It’s quite a complicated geometry, so we spent time with the fabricator getting it right. The sections were then shipped to site and craned into place from the ground up.

How does 2 Harbor address climate resilience while promoting best-in-class life sciences research?

There are nine 43,000 sq ft floors of naturally lit lab and office space served by a central core and shared amenity space. Each floor can be configured flexibly, including the options of open-plan benching and closed areas for specialist R&D concerns. The general principle is 60% highly serviced lab space supported by 40% office space.

Massachusetts is a leader in environmental regulations, and under the current codes it would be practically impossible to create glass-box architecture. We wanted to create a visually distinctive building that would promote the profile of life sciences research. Overall, 60% of the facade is solid, which enabled us to achieve an R value of 30, and window areas are tripled glazed. The building is constructed to comply with the city’s 2070 flooding resiliency plan, which means the ground floor is raised 4ft with the lobby itself incorporating an accessible 1 in 20 slope. Outside, an acre is dedicated to a new public plaza with planting to promote biodiversity.