MET Commons

Embedded within the MET, the Commons is SA+P’s public-facing platform for interdisciplinary exchange. It brings research, teaching, and practice into public view through exhibitions, lectures, and other forms of programming.

Overview

Located on the ground floor of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, the Commons includes galleries, an atrium, auditorium, café, and adjacent public spaces for exhibitions, lectures, conversations, workshops, performances, screenings, and other programs. Together, these spaces provide a setting for encounters across the school, MIT, Cambridge, and beyond.

MET Warehouse auditorium and stairs
Metropolitan Storage Warehouse portico

MET Warehouse Sidara Auditorium and Mark Gorenberg (1976) and Cathrin Stickney Staircase
Iwan Baan

1/2

A shared public space

The Commons reflects the breadth of intellectual and creative work at SA+P, spanning architecture, planning, design, art, media, technology, history, and the social and environmental questions that connect them. Its programs bring faculty, students, practitioners, artists, researchers, community collaborators, and the public into conversation.

Alongside scheduled exhibitions and events, the Commons supports informal gathering and spontaneous use, making the ground floor of the MET an active threshold between the life of the school and the city.

Group of people gathered in MIT Metropolitan Storage Warehouse lobby
Group of people gathered in a circle in the MIT Metropolitan Storage Warehouse corridor
1/2

Exhibitions

Exhibitions at the Commons bring together research, design, scholarship, and creative practice from SA+P and beyond. They may take the form of installations, commissions, archival projects, student and faculty work, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Recycled sail white canvas with cuts in the shape of pointed feathers.
1/2

Events & Programs

Talks, conversations, workshops, screenings, performances, and other public programs, free and open to all, extend engagement opportunities with exhibitions and create additional opportunities for exchange.

Upcoming at the MET Commons

Governance

The MET Commons is administered by the Commons Committee, bringing together faculty, staff, and students from across SA+P. The committee helps shape the Commons’ programming and stewardship, supporting a platform that reflects the range of disciplines and communities across the school.

Contact

Mehves Lelic
mehves@mit.edu

Head of Exhibitions and Public Programming for the MET Commons