Constellations Thesis Book by Nesrin Zidan

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The celestial sciences have always
found their manifestation in architecture.
They both evolved beyond imagination.
The profound sense of becoming one with
the cosmos. When man decided to venture
into space exploration and the study
of astronomy expanded.
All around the world observatories
were erected. NASA’s Glenn Research center
was founded in 1942, and later, in 1960,
the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
was built. Consecutively, in 1961, NASA’s
Johnson Space Center opened, and soon
after, in 1962, the Kennedy Space Center
was founded. Space Exploration was at
its peak, and in 1971, the Soviets founded
their own space research complex, Salyut
1, which was the world’s first-ever space
station (Wilkinson, 2022).
As a result of the major achievements
in the field, sharing those discoveries
with the public has become essential
too. In more recent times, new programmatic
innovations were introduced to
make astronomy more accessible. Therefore,
public spaces were morphed to provide
an experience with the construction
of museums, planetariums, theaters, etc.
Outer space continues to inspire architectural
design in other ways, indirectly.
The concept of stargazing represents
an escape from the rigid confines
of reality and is associated with fantasy
and a more poetic outlook on life. Architecture
tries to provide that sense in many
instances because when people inhabit a
space, they become one with it, the same
way our ancestors felt as though their destinies
were bound to the stars; the heavens,
and what is beyond what they were
seeking.