TEN Arquitectos has released images of their NASA Research Support Building at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Marking the Agency’s diamond (60th) anniversary, the research center is to serve as “a new and contemporary public face for the home of the country’s most prolific aeronautic and aerospace innovations.”
The two-story, 60,000-square-foot research center, which has just broken ground, consists of a series of rectilinear massings positioned to optimize program adjacencies, creative interaction, and to accommodate public green spaces both indoors and out.
Airy volumes of glass and corrugated metal will host both dedicated and fluid work areas, with a series of open and private offices, conference rooms, training rooms, and an exchange store spread across two floors. Natural light will be drawn deep into the building through double height, landscaped internal courtyards, which also serve as additional places to gather.
A north-south orientated, elevated, cantilevered element is designed to accommodate a communal dining area, collaborative work space, and a gallery displaying a rotating selection of items from NASA’s archives. The placement of exposed trusses reduces the need for structural support, thus “enabling a transparency that not only floods the interiors with light but connects it visually to the campus with 270-degree views.”
NASA is a ‘culture of functionalism’. This new building seeks to work within the vocabulary of the research infrastructure, like the amazing domes, gravity drops and pipes that weave throughout the campus. Our hope is this building will act as a platform for this community, connecting them to each other, to resources, to their past achievements and future opportunities.
-Andrea Steele, Partner, TEN Arquitectos
The research center was been designed to achieve LEED silver accreditation, through use of NASA innovations such as photovoltaics and tnemec paint. Construction is underway, with completion in 2020.
News via: TEN Arquitectos
