The outdoor space can be used for assembly and testing of pod components, large gatherings, and as social space for the staff. It provides visual connections between the different departments and references the courtyard of Virgin Hyperloop’s LA campus. The facility also houses a test portal, that provides a passenger interface into the pods while they remain in the vacuum tube. This first prototype will be applied in the first commercial Hyperloop portals and continue HCC’s legacy of the first architecture turned Hyperloop infrastructure project.

The new OPPO R&D Headquarters, or O-Tower, resolves these competing requirements by translating a traditional office slab with the perfect depth for access to daylight into a cylindrical courtyard building that is compact yet also providing large, contiguous floor area. Pushing down the southern edge of the building to the ground minimizes the external surface area of the more solar exposed façade while maximizing views out from the inward façade, which is in turn self-shaded from solar gain by the geometry of the tower. The massing is a manifestation of a building form optimized to reduce energy use and maximize access to natural light.

The first building completed within the masterplan is The Honeycomb, designed in response to the Bahamian lifestyle. Each home has a giant balcony forming an outdoor living room with a summer kitchen and a pool sunken into the floor. The floor slab dips down to accommodate the body of water. The weight of the water is carried by the four meter high partition wall between the homes below serving as a room high concrete beam. The fourth wall of the pools is made from acrylic aquarium glass. Swimmers become fully immersed in the view of the marina

Working and living in Mars Science City will allow us to gain experience with climate control, safety, quality of construction, and resilience of human-made ecosystems that will be invaluable when we finally go to Mars and to our work on Earth. Part academic, part commercial, part exhibition, it will act as a Martian embassy on Earth &#; the first foothold of our neighbor planet on Terran soil.

The , sq ft campus includes a new building and ceremonial courtyard, as well as the potential renovation of existing historical buildings. BIG’s competition proposal, developed in collaboration with landscape architects Olin Studio and digital media agency Squint/Opera, seeks to reflect the historical context of the Navy Yard, while referencing the scale, materials and details of Navy vessels. An array of large-scale vitrines open up towards a public street, welcoming visitors and locals with an impressive glimpse into the museum&#;s collection of artifacts inside and outside, conveying the mission, lineage and breadth of operations that constitutes the US Navy.