ALEXANDER STINCHCOMB

“The Cosmos is a Magnet. Once you’ve been there, the only thing you can think about is how to get back”        

         - Yuri Romaneko, Russian Cosmonaut

 

Today, we have lost sight of the heavens and now discard and take for granted our greatest achievements as useless and unwanted. Throughout history we have always defined ourselves by the ability to master the impossible. We look to these moments, when we dared to aim higher, to break barriers as our greatest achievements. 

 

It took just sixty-six years from man not being able to fly to landing on the moon. Since then we have not been back, we have pulled back in. The Space Race of the 1960’s and 70’s lifted the human spirit. Space flight speaks to all of us. We are humans who hunger to explore and to understand. We are only bounded by the earth, and the ocean, and the sky looking to new horizons. 

 

The power of architecture lies in its ability to raise questions. Acknowledging that there are limits to what design can do, the focus of this investigation is to explore the impact of the natural and built environment to capture our imagination, to inspire, and to mystify. As a project that looks to architecture as an instrument for exploration, a center for joint NASA and civilian space exploration and repository  for the Space Shuttle Enterprise is proposed for the design and site. It looks to reignite the aspirations of exploration where only few have been, but which many have come to understand in text, photographs, and films as the last and infinite frontier of man. In order to look forward beyond horizons, we also need to protect and preserve our spirited past, to free ourselves from preconceptions and release our imagination and aspirations.