Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, who died last week at the age of 95, was known worldwide for designs as diverse as the gleaming tower of 4 World Trade Center and the curving lines of the Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium. He employed both sharp angles and floating forms for the Media Lab's iconic Building E14—an extension of the original Media Lab building designed by I.M. Pei. 

In all of his work, the Washington Post notes, Maki endeavored to discover “the ‘body of wisdom,’ or collective memory, from a site and [translate] that into a design.” 

At the Media Lab, that “body of wisdom” includes I.M. Pei’s Wiesner Building, which features a cube-shaped lab space surrounded by offices. That design was further developed in Building E14, where two-story lab spaces are encircled by offices that open onto balconies. 

Maki said that Building E14, which opened in 2010, was intended to help people and ideas circulate. Its glass-enclosed lab spaces and internal courtyards are connected by floating staircases that offer surprising glimpses of the work going on inside. 

Explore Building E14 with the links and video below!