Harvard, Massachusetts 

The brief

The Harvard Enterprise Research Campus is a prestigious Ivy League university campus in Boston’s Allston neighbourhood, a location that blends life sciences, retail and public space into a lively urban setting.

The facade for this project was originally designed using glazed terracotta, with large elements and a dynamic composition. However, the surge in energy costs, especially gas prices, which soared in 2022, made the originally selected material unsustainable for the investor.

The client, Tishman Speyer chose not to revise the design concept, but instead to reinterpret it by seeking a more sustainable solution, without compromising on aesthetics or performance.

What makes it special

At this point, Aliva was brought in to redesign the envelope of two residential buildings in the campus in collaboration with the Dutch architecture firm MVRDV, with a pivotal brief – to preserve the same design intent but express it through a different facade material.

The solution lay in Aliva’s Alu.covering^® system, a facade made of extruded aluminium alloy, one that is 100% recyclable and composed of up to 80% recycled material.

This facade was uniquely designed to have all the look and feel of a terracotta system but Aliva’s customised Alu.covering^® was a lighter weight solution for the height of the two elevations and more cost effective for the project’s supply, installation and build programmes.

Luscious greens fit for an Ivy League University

The project shows Aliva’s customisation abilities off to another level. Two custom colour finishes were created with a three layer coating process that evoke the luscious tones of an Ivy League University. The shades custom matched the concept for each building: a dark green glaze for the mid rise building and light green glazed tone for the high rise building.

Both were achieved through a coating cycle consisting of a primer, a semi-transparent coloured glaze, and a transparent protective finish. The final result is a shimmering, weather-resistant surface.

Fluted profiles created with custom engineering

This project was not simply a change of facade material, it included a complete rethink of the facade system. The aluminium slats were designed with a vertical, concave and convex layout to recreate the original sense of movement envisaged from terracotta.

Aliva developed 16 different dies to produce a series of fluted profiles, each with specific dimensions, giving flair and shape to a truly bespoke architectural skin.

The engineering process took over 8 months of technical design, working in close synergy with the designers, client, and installer.

Once the system was validated, production was completed in 6 months, with a total of 22,500 cladding modules created.

This facade innovation preserved the project’s original identity through a tailor-made solution that integrated aesthetics, sustainability, and performance. Aliva’s Onda Lunga Alu.covering^® A-rated, BBA certified system creates a sense of flow, rhythm and unique identity for these two signature elevations.