The design is based on a Toroidal geometry that offers several structural and functional benefits. Structurally, the lower center of gravity makes the habitat less vulnerable to lunar quakes and reduces the foundation requirements of the structure during shallow moonquakes, which though infrequent ( shallow moonquakes have been recorded in a span of eight years by the Apollo missions), are thought to have the most potential impact on lunar surface structures.

The building’s double curved, precast concrete façade bows inwards to create a generous urban canopy that responds to the ‘shock wave’ of the park’s circular running track, activity pods and planting vignettes – rippling outwards like rings in water to invade the building’s footprint. Visitors and employees can admire the mothballed ships sitting in the adjacent docks while embracing the Central Green Park.

Intrepid’s front façade is created by the strategic stacking of High Concrete’s precast panels of varying sizes, figured in a basket-weave pattern to realize the top of the building’s straight edge. As the panels reach upward they also tilt outward, creating an inviting, cave-like canopy over the building’s front sidewalk. Each of the building’s other three sides stand straight up, maintaining the structure’s signature paneling.

The existing terrain is used to form the shell by casting concrete directly on the sand with all its layers including grasses, mosses, and seashells, like an amber sand dune frozen in time. Once the concrete is dry the space is excavated underneath, leaving the thin sheet of frozen beach hovering above. Like a new sand dune vernacular for Fanø, Lycium will appear as if it was always there, shaped by the winds and the water moving sand across centuries.

The building’s structure is designed as a stack of two volumes, or rectangle ‘blocks’ &#; two per floor &#; with each pair rotated degrees from the floor below. On the interior, each individual volume is expressed as a rectangular wood-clad truss on the long edges, and as a floor-to-ceiling glass facade on the shorter sides. The continual rotation of each floor creates a sky-lit, central atrium at the heart of the building that provides direct views into classrooms and research spaces from all levels.