Designing for Space

Pluto probe getting on a mission to deliver the unknown next week

 When Beinfield Architecture designs for “space” we have a lot less to worry about than NASA  but the process is still the same: to embrace the agility and aptitude necessary to cycle through  and understand constraints and possibilities. Kayak.com, award winning international online travel  search engine asked us to fit-out an 18,000 sq. ft. commercial space for  their new office headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

James  Wassell’s rendering of the digital virtual conference center

The challenge was to craft within the shell of the existing 

historic structure a headquarters facility with the goal of providing  brand reinforcement and to empower Kayak to have enhanced connectivity to New York City’s well educated millennial population.

For our architectural intervention we took advantage of the soaring interior space initially designed by James Gamble Rogers and embraced the raw nature of the salvaged building, while referencing air travel, which is at the core of Kayak’s business.

A client request to suspend a used jet fuselage in the hanger like building shell was challenged by the difficulties of getting the aircraft into the historic structure.  Alternatively it was decided to build a new fuselage from within.  

The existing space was adapted to maintain the sense of building as artifact.  Exposed brick, metal and concrete trusses, as well as remnants of the buildings more ornate former life is preserved.  Rooms constructed of metal and glass house
offices and support space. 

A suspended catwalk bridge leading to digital conference center

The fuselage suspended from reinforced trusses houses a digital virtual conference center that connects headquarters to the satellite offices around the world. A suspended catwalk bridge access further emphasizes
the floating nature of the room/object.  
 
Enclosed executive offices are housed on the first floor, while the upper levels are given over to the work stations, collaborative spaces and meeting areas.
 
To maintain an in-progress character, all mechanicals are exposed.  Ductwork rises
through the building from the basement becoming an architectural element in the composition. 
The oval shape of the spiral duct reinforces the aeronautics aesthetic. 

The reception desk was fabricated from re-purposed plane parts.  It’s smooth surface along with polished concrete floors, shiny metal and glass contrast with the rough brick and concrete structure that still shows impressions from its original wooden formwork.  Plywood is used as a cladding element, lending its organic warmth to the space.  

Beinfield Architecture delivered! Let’s see what the Pluto mission brings!   

The reception desk  fabricated from re-purposed plane parts

The New Horizons Pluto mission will help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making
the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious
Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation.