Balance Patch

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Balance Patch

  • location:
    Boston, MA
  • Date:
    Completed 2018
  • client:
    Balance Patch
  • collaborators:
    Architect: Merge Architects in collaboration with Ibañez Kim
    MEP Engineer: AKF Group
    Structural Engineer: Evan Hankin, PE
    Photography: John Horner Photography
  • project_team:
    Principal-In-Charge: Elizabeth Whittaker
    Project Manager: Jamie Pelletier
    Design Team: Chris Johnson, Peter Sprowls
  • description:
    Balance Patch is Boston’s first social video gaming cafe, combining pay to play gaming stations, a full service cafe, and event space for competition gaming. Located in the Allston neighborhood, nestled between several of the city’s universities, Balance Patch taps into a massive international market of social and competitive gaming that has since been underrepresented locally.

    Formerly an abandoned recording studio, the existing space is stripped back to reveal the original waffle slab ceiling/roof structure, CMU walls, and concrete floor. This voluminous open concrete shell is stitched together with a series of strategically place pod-like interventions that contain various socially charged programs including; a dynamic entry threshold brightly lined with angled ribs, a cafe space at the end of the great hall acting as buffer and respite from the gaming programs, and a competitive gaming booth, located in the rear event space.

    The project is further stitched together utilizing Balance Patch’s bright red as a continuous graphic that meanders from floor to wall to ceiling. The series of connected nodes provides playful wayfinding that helps draw you through the space.