04 // Hanging in Thin Air

Adaptive Reuse Academic project

Studio Advisor: Ratna Shah and Errol Reubens Jr.

(ratna.shah@cept.ac.in & errol.reubens@cept.ac.in)

Location: Ahmedabad, India // Scale: 68,298 sq.ft

The enormously vast, seemingly immeasurable and loosely punctuated space of the abandoned Industrial building sitting in close proximity to the airport, in its measure of floating flights, echoed the dimensions of infinity of space and mankind’s adventure to measure, and, the experience of being weightless.

The idea of the experience, the fancy and the thrill of being in air, experiences associated with being suspended, levitated, projected and pushed through space can not only be experienced but also be enriched by providing a deeper understanding of the science behind it.

The Flightorium Center functions as an Experience and Science centre taking visitors from pragmatic and speculative experiences, through a series of spaces in a sequential order and then opening up to the large volume which appears to be suspended through a tactile grid network.

Existing spatial grid of the structural network of the site and the spatial dimension that it offers is stretched by offsetting it and punctuating it against another tactile grid which accentuates the depth of space and exaggerates the illusion of infinity.

The constant referencing of both while moving around suspended volumes intends to give the dimension of infinity a thrill.

Duration: 16 Weeks

Site having airport runway in close proximity

Understanding site through parameters

Explorations and development of type of grid and the organizational and structural capabilities the

Roofing detail with the grid system

Metal bracket supporting the concrete floor