Endeavour Space Museum

n 2012 the Endeavour space shuttle was set to be put on display in Los Angeles, CA in Exposition Park. We were tasked to design a Museum to showcase the Endeavour Shuttle. Research led me to find that NASA held a competition that invited schools to come up with a name for the shuttle, Among other stipulations, the shuttle had to be named after an "exploratory or research sea vessel" and the name also needed to be easily understood in space. Endeavour ultimately was named after a ship chartered to traverse the South Pacific in 1768 and captained by 18th century British explorer James Cook. Cook's main objective, tasked by the British Admiralty and the Royal Society, was to observe the Transit of Venus at Tahiti. This led me to explore the idea of Space and Time travel to develop my Parti for this project.

When we see the idea of time or travel and space we often see it depicted as a web or wavelengths. I wanted to explore this idea of a web and sense of infinity not only through the skin of my project but also throughout the interiors.My starting point for the overall structure was an Airplane Hangar, as this seemed ideal as it’s original intent fit the project. From this, I began to deconstruct and elevate it. A Hangar is already barebones but I however I wanted to reduce it a bit more and make it more breathable. To do this, I created a skeletal structure of beams to support the roof and glazing. The beams were abstracted from the wavelengths we see in Diagrams of sound traveling through Space. For the interior space I wanted to force the Museumgoer to explore every facet of the Shuttle, which is the main focal point of the Gallery. To achieve this I created a circular form of circulation that leads you through all the Exhibits Galleries as well as give you a 360 degree view of the shuttle as you walk through the Museum space. On the outer skin I wanted to create a web-like facade surrounding the building. The web creates a Natural Light inside the Museum and casts a web like shadow throughout giving you the sense of Outer Space.