Nyctalopia|The Red Sands Astronomy Center

Student thesis: Master Thesis and HD Thesis

  • Aliki Skiada
4. term, Architecture (cand.tech.), Master (Master Programme)
This master thesis is an attribute to the spatial practices of a public architecture that is however, withdrawn from the urban content and invites users to live a reclusive experience. It is a referential architecture to the science of stars and the sociocultural and historical importance of a former offshore military base. The project proposal lies on a competition brief by Rethinking team –initiative of Estudio Heliopausa-, a call towards young architects to develop an Astronomy Center at the Red Sands sea forts of United Kingdom located on the Thames estuary.

Referencing the organic timetable followed in such a program, a walkable tube complementing the bizarre army structures and going from light to dark is introduced. The astronomy center is self-sufficient and eco-friendly and invites amateur astronomers and “star-eaters” to enter an experience of materiality combining the natural and artificial and initiate in the research of the universe’s mysteries and their relation to the whole.

The report flows from theories on tectonics to a methodology that reveals characteristics of natural phenomena and the human intervention and drives the theoretical notion to a practical stage. The process of this emerging architectural design is presented through a poetic and a technical approach praising that both are needed for the production of a meaningful spatial experience.
LanguageEnglish
Publication date27 May 2015
Number of pages69
ID: 213020076