Constellations Thesis Book by Nesrin Zidan

Orbital gestures form the building as well
as its relationship to the site. The site arcs
evolve from the interaction of multiple
“gravitational forces”: urban master plan,
adjacent context, visitor approaches, exterior
exhibits, and the introduction of three
“celestial bodies” within the main Planetarium
building. The orbits emerge from
the circular master plan of Lingang City
and connect tangentially to the adjacent
circular ring road. These site arcs lock the
Planetarium and its three “celestial bodies”
into the larger city structure and not only
position the building within the green
zone but also geometrically link it to Dishui
Lake at the city center. A metaphorical
inward spiral continues from the scale
of the city to the precinct of the site and
eventually to the heart of the Planetarium
building where the dynamic energy of
these orbits activates the architecture.
The orbital trajectories through the site
articulate a geometric structure that
organizes the design and planning of the
outdoor experience, the auxiliary programs
and the main Museum. They also
help to define the variety of site features
and circulations: from outdoor exhibits
to major approaches to the Planetarium,
whether by car, by bus or by footfrom the
subway station across the bridge.
These orbital arcs may be expanded
beyond the site to demonstrate a broader
understanding of cosmic scale. For
example, if the Planetarium sphere is
imagined as the Earth, an arc within the
greenbelt beyond the Planetarium site
would represent the orbit of the moon
around the Earth.
Design Narrative
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Scale, distance and the organization of the
cosmos could infiltrate the entire city and
region, where a rendering of astronomical
orbits could spread out across the land
with the Shanghai Planetarium or Dishui
Lake as the center point. Visitors could
embark on their own inter-galactic expedition,
seeking, for example, the marked
locations through the city of the planets
with Dishui Lake as the relative location
and scale of the sun.
Relative Size of the Sun
1,391,000,000 m
Scale of the Universe
It is difficult for humans to understand
astronomical scales, but if we compare the size
of Dishu Lake to the size of the sun, our Planetarium
is nearly the relative size of the Earth.