Civilian designs workplace with mission control centre for space company Vast

Aerospace company Vast has worked with interiors studio Civilian to bring a human-centred feel to its Californian headquarters, which incorporates a mission control centre and clean room dedicated to the building of space stations. A start-up that is only four years old, Vast is building the world's first commercial space station, the Haven-1. It is The post Civilian designs workplace with mission control centre for space company Vast appeared first on Dezeen.

Civilian designs workplace with mission control centre for space company Vast

Vast Long Beach headquarters by Civilian

Aerospace company Vast has worked with interiors studio Civilian to bring a human-centred feel to its Californian headquarters, which incorporates a mission control centre and clean room dedicated to the building of space stations.

A start-up that is only four years old, Vast is building the world's first commercial space station, the Haven-1. It is also vying to provide the successor to the retiring International Space Station with its bigger follow-up, Haven-2.

For its campus, the company has taken over three warehouse buildings totalling 17,620 square metres in Long Beach, a hub for the commercial space industry.

Aerial photo of Vast's Long Beach headquarters, showing three large white warehouses surrounded by car parking — Vast's campus is set across renovated warehouses in Long Beach

Vast and Civilian have now completed the renovations on the first of these buildings, forming the heart of the facilities.

The company's space station interiors feature elements such as wood panelling, soft surfaces and domestic-inspired accessories.

Similarly, the goal with the headquarters has been to bring a more "human" feel to an industry associated with cold, clinical and industrial workplaces.

Photo of the SkyLab lounge at Vast's headquarters showing plush leather armchairs, a wood-panelled back wall, and a glass internal wall allowing views into the workplace — Customers are hosted in the SkyLab, or Astronaut Lounge

White oak, limewash, wool and a two-storey-tall tree feature within the space, while the layout is intended to reflect Vast's vertically integrated business model, where everything from design to fabrication and mission operations takes place within one company.

In the physical environment, that has meant situating the key areas of the business within one unified space, and creating sightlines and opportunities for interaction between them.

Photo of the clean room at Vast's Long Beach headquarters, showing a space station module being fabricated on the floor and an American flag on the wall — The headquarters includes a clean room for fabrication

In particular, engineering is given a prominent position. Views of the 1,400-square-metre clean room, where fabrication takes place, were created throughout.

"When you walk into our facilities, you come across these big glass windows, and you are seeing Haven-1 being built in real time," Vast chief design officer Hillary Coe told Dezeen.

Photo of a mezzanine meeting room at Vast's Long Beach headquarters showing a view onto the fabrication floor through floor-to-ceiling windows — Views of the clean room are provided across the facility

"That is purposefully designed, because having the progress of our stations being built visible throughout where we work encourages collaboration and keeps the mission at the forefront of everyone's minds," she added.

Entry to the Vast headquarters is via a double-height lobby. The space was designed to evoke the feel and proportions of the inside of the Haven-1 space station module with chamfered edges and a circular oculus cut into the mezzanine.

Limewashed walls, a 7.5-metre-tall bottle tree and oak and leather bench seating introduce the interior's material themes.

Photo of the lobby of Vast's headquarters in Long Beach, showing a room with chamfered corners, a tall tree planted in the ground, a circular oculus cut into the mezzanine above and a circular skylight beyond that — The lobby features an oculus cut-out that mimics the proportions of Vast's space station module

Beyond oversized oak doors, another double-height space – an all-hands area with long communal tables for dining and socialising – sits at the centre of the facility.

To one side of it, the glass-walled clean room allows employees and visitors a view of the fabrication of the Haven space stations, while an aluminium-sided ramp leading to the mezzanine wraps the space.

Photo of the long tables in the all-hands area of the Vast headquarters, with a glass wall beyond that showing the clean-room fabrication zone — The all-hands area adjoins the clean-room fabrication zone

This ramp "pauses" with a viewing platform overlooking the mission control centre, where flight controllers and other support personnel will manage craft and crews in space.

The viewing points around this room allow staff from across the company to feel part of launches and other important moments. The interior was intended to create optimal ergonomic and acoustic comfort for the staff within and allow them to absorb huge amounts of visual data.

Photo of the Vast headquarters, looking in at a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling colour screen in the mission control centre from a viewing platform outside in the communal area — A viewing platform looks into the mission control centre

Civilian co-founder Ksenia Kagner explained that through speaking with mission control personnel, she and co-founder Nicko Elliott had learned that they have some of the most intense jobs within the business, working highly focused eight-hour shifts where even a trip to the bathroom requires arranging cover.

"Your physical presence and your attention for these very long stretches of time is the thing that's required in those rooms," said Kagner.

Coe encouraged the interior designers to break established norms and "set the tone of what a mission control room in this space age expansion period looks like," she added.

Elsewhere on the ground floor, there are conference rooms, huddle rooms, a doctor's office and open workspaces, while the mezzanine level hosts the primary sales centre – dubbed SkyLab, or the Astronaut Lounge – which also has views over the clean room.

Photo within the mission control centre of the Vast space company, showing personnel sitting at long desks behind wide multi-screen setups with a giant floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screen in front of them showing graphics of rockets and space — The mission control centre is designed to be as comfortable as possible for the staff

The mezzanine's additional spaces include meeting rooms, more open work areas, a gym, a mother's room and a lounge with a meditation zone, screened by the foliage of the lobby tree.

Civilian's past work has included the design of the headquarters for Sandbox Films, a documentary production company whose New York City offices include an art deco-influenced screening room.

Recently, Copenhagen design studio SAGA completed a four-bedroom astronaut training facility.

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