Boston-based MASS Design Group is an interdisciplinary collective comprised of 120 architects, landscape architects, engineers, furniture designers, writers, and filmmakers. MASS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, committed to equitable, community-driven design ensuring that architecture addresses the social issues facing the world. Since its founding, MASS has donated more than $8 million in design services and unlocked more than $80 million in capital project investment through philanthropic outreach.
With its mission embedded in its name — MASS is an acronym for Model of Architecture Serving Society — the company was founded on the notion that buildings hold the power to heal. The firm’s early work explored the ways in which architecture can improve health and well-being, and projects in Rwanda and Haiti delivered buildings that strengthen the healing services its partners in those countries provide. The practices learned in those early projects established the framework that allows MASS to inform policy development, emerging research, and projects that address inequality. MASS has 30 projects built or under construction around the world, including the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.
From its earliest days, MASS has dealt with infectious diseases, experience that has proved invaluable during the global COVID-19 pandemic. When social distancing measures were enacted across most of the country last March, MASS quickly turned to its compilation of best practices for spatial strategies that help slow contagion and assisted Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program in designing temporary treatment facilities in the city. Guided by MASS’ collaborative process, the combination of design, medical, nonprofit, and government forces allowed the program to begin treating patients within one week of initial planning.
