Apollo I Memorial Tower and Astronaut Training Facility
This project aims to investigate the conditions of the disused Launch Site 34 at the Kennedy Space Centre, Folrida, USA, as a potential site for an astronaut memorial tower and astronaut training facility. Having been the site of the Apollo I tragedy, in which three astronauts lost their lives in 1967, it is historically loaded and so the treatment of the remaining structures on-site must be considered.
The derelict remnant of the old site is a 3-storey tall concrete plinth in the centre on which the Saturn IB rocket in which the astronauts lost their lives would have once stood. Using its inverse form to generate a void encased by a 67-metre tall concrete memorial tower provides the opportunity to create a church-like monument for tourists to ascend in memory of the human losses in space travel. Alongside the astronaut training facility, it also provides the opportunity to conduct an interesting jump-form construction investigation
Primarily, the building proposal consists of a concrete memorial tower containing a void with the inverted form of the Saturn IB rocket. The 67-metre tall journey involves a routine ascent up a spiral staircase, disrupted by the independent exploration of the many ledges and fractured views and ‘caves’ within the irregularly-shaped monolith. It is a church-like space meant for reflection and to commemorate the scale and enormity of the space programme, both emotionally, and mechanically.
The second part of the proposal is an astronaut training centre, sprawling around the base of the rocket. The principal feature of the centre is a 30-metre Training Pool in which to practice micro-gravity space walks. directly below the existing structure and tower, forming a continuous 100-metre void. It becomes a continuation of the void, and incorporates an ‘aquarium’ from which tourists can watch astronauts training on a replica module from the International Space Station. With the central point of preservation (the concrete plinth) at ground level, I plan to investigate a method of carefully excavating foundations and the void of the pool, whilst developing a piling strategy. The main focus however, is to examine the casting process of concrete towers. Usually, structures of this kind are jump-formed, but due to the irregular extruded form of the Apollo I Tower, it calls for the design of a bespoke type of alterable jump form-work. This is explored in more detail in this technical document. (add link)
