Laboratory Interior Design | Graduate Aerospace Labs (GALCIT) | Caltech | Pasadena | California | JFAK

Housed in a historically-protected structure originally designed by Bertram Goodhue in 1921, GALCIT has accomplished revolutionary breakthroughs in aerospace engineering. The renovation of the department’s 33,000 square feet of labs, conference rooms, and common spaces acknowledges these past achievements while also suggesting the multitude of exciting directions for its future.

Drawing on the idea of “flow,” a concept central to aerospace engineering, many of the project’s forms were derived by imagining the building as an “architectural wind tunnel.” The complex curves of the lobby ceiling element, fabricated of PETG thermoplastic using advanced software and computer-controlled machines, is a prime example. The felt ceiling of the main conference room is a direct representation of a seminal flow diagram by Theodore von Karman, the founder of both GALCIT and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.....more