THEATER OF COSMOS

Flight Control Center Headquarters Competition

Ground control is the invisible arm that steers humans and objects in space. In popular culture, it is where hard decisions, planned maneuvers and complicated calculations take place, the earth side of space travel. For us, it is also an anchoring point, where people and objects in space maintain a real time link with earth, their mothership, so in a way the building must also act like a space vessel, carrying and supporting its occupants 24 (earth) hours a day.

Our general objective was to create a new institutional architectural language that builds upon the history of the agency and celebrates its achievements. A strong, yet adaptable architecture, capable of producing a timeless background where the imminent expansion of the space industry can be planned, executed, recorded and shared; a new theater of the cosmos.

We propose an interior that associates with high technology in its construction processes, and which can remain relevant through decades in its capacity to endure changes of use. Regarding materiality, we have sought durability, through the evocative thoughts of minerals and rocks, the precision and resistance of metal surfaces, and the organic curviness of plastic shapes, all this шs a compliment of the softness of human skin which will utilise this space.

For this, we have chosen a simple yet innovative palette, where the base materials (stone, metal, plastics) are not strange to the context, but their applications come with a twist such as extruded metal sponges, 3D printed rock artefacts and poured self-healing floors, technologies which have been pushed and popularised greatly due to the efforts of the space industry.

A view of the Press Center