US architecture Ross Barney Architects has completed a NASA laboratory for deep-space technology testing in Cleveland, USA, which includes a tower made of pre-cast concrete panels for testing antennas.
Ross Barney Architects created the Aerospace Communications Facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, which originally opened as the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in 1942 to test jet propulsion.
Ross Barney Architects has created a deep-space technology research centre in Ohio
The building forms part of a master plan for the NASA site, which has also been designed by Ross Barney Architects.
The Aerospace Communications Facility was created for the testing of deep-space technology such as radars and lasers, so the studio started from a consideration of the function when implementing its design. It has a structure made of concrete mixed with copper
This included the creation of a special concrete with metallic components for a series of precast walls erected for a radar antenna-testing lab, which stands as a siloed element taller than the rest of the glass-clad building with a separate foundation.
The copper in the concrete allows for the building to act like a Faraday cage, completely isolating it from outside radio interference.
Equations provided by NASA scientist Dr Bob Romanofsky fill the bottom edges of the precast panelling.
It has structurally isolated elements
In the rectangular, glass-clad volume, a central core was structurally isolated fr...