Tent City Housing

Tent City is located on the backside of the Prudential Mall and across the street from Back Bay Station. The term Tent City is mainly used to describe a variety of temporary housing facilities using tents, and in this complex resides a mixture of familiies from different incomes, thus properly named Tent City.



The complex itself spreads out over a large area extending from the large scale Boston skyline to the smaller communities of the Back Bay on the opposite end of the complex. The design characteristics therefore are site specific. Keeping with the smaller buildings in the Back Bay, this complex starts out at the same scale as these communities. The buildings then begin to gently slope up and rise in height until they culminate at its highest point next to the Prudential Mall. The apartments surround an inner greenspace that makes the space extremely enjoyable and quiet. The site receives a great amount of sunlight that allows the vegetation to flourish. However the most remarkable aspect of this space was how quiet the area is. The height of the apartments on the northeastern side act as a noise barrier. It is a huge difference from the loud and busy Boylston Street that runs along side this part of the complex.



The construction of Tent City seems to be a brick vaneer, noticed by weep holes on the exterior. Due to the unevenness of the brick construction and the vast amounts of sunlight flooding the complex, an interesting moment occurs on the facade of the buildings. The window sills cast their own shadows upon the brick wall, but the brick walls themselves cast some interesting shadows. The protruding bricks cast small shadows and give the facade a unique texture, different from what the brick itself exudes. The trees in the greenspace act as protection from the sunlight during the day. These trees are very important due to the face that there aren’t any other forms of sunshading upon the facade.