CONVERGENCE TO INFINITY
UTSOA | Program: Space Training Facility
Austin, Texas | Matt Fajkus | Fall 2016
“By the twenty-first century it either will have become evident to humanity that
these questions are absurd and anti-evolutionary or men will no longer be living on Earth.”
--Buckminister Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
As man embarks on a new frontier, we face the realization that space is beyond our limitations as civilians. Using the platforms of advanced technology as a medium between the intangible and tangible, dream and realization, earth and space, we begin to challenge the boundaries of human existence. Travel and leisure become elevated, heightening the vision of the world from an entirely new perspective. The Spaceport America, funded by Virgin Galactic, has become one of the first headquarters in North America that supports civilian space travel. Using the Spaceport America by Foster+Partners as a way to study the programmatic nature of a space training facility became helpful when we were to incorporate a secondary training facility in Austin, Texas. After our visit to the Spaceport in New Mexico, we began to understand the intense training, psychologically and physically, one has to overcome in order to operate under extreme conditions. The transition from earth to space for the ordinary person will truly become a culmination point for the scope of mankind.
Conceptual Drawing
Procession around Neutral Buoyancy Lab
Section through Neutral Buoyancy Lab
Sectional Studies
Exploded Axon
Acceleration of Space Tourism
The site is in the heart of downtown Austin, located on 3rd street between Lavaca and Colorado Street. Because of the dense urban fabric on the site, the large elements of the program became a challenge. Main programmatic features such as the neutral buoyancy lab, centrifuge, and the soyez simulator derived the form, plan, and spatial instances of the civilian training facility. The soyez simulator and neutral buoyancy lab were placed strategically in order to draw the public in and create awareness about space travel. The neutral buoyancy lab also anchored the plan as a whole, creating a cyclical procession around the featured element. The program was laid out based on the route one would take from a prospective client, to a returning client coming back for intensive training, and finally ending at graduation. The graduation space on the fourth floor becomes the culminating point for clients. It symbolizes space flight as it is the highest occupied space in the facility.