Interior Architecture students in Design Studio 4 spent the semester working with aerospace company Virgin Orbit on the design for a new Experience Center in Long Beach. Students explored how brands are differentiating themselves to define the future of space. Students will present their work at Virgin Orbit’s HQ in Long Beach.
Virgin Orbit Experience Center Review
Thursday, May 2nd at 2:45pm
East Conant Street, Long Beach, CA
The studio was focused on branding and questioned how space responds to and informs how specific community and individual identities utilize strategies of branding to create meaning in their inhabitation of public environments.
Studio Description:
BRANDS IN SPACE: As we enter the dawn of the branded space race, sectors that were typically overseen by governmental organizations are being pushed aside to make way for the world’s most influential corporations, competing to lead in tourism, transportation and the colonization of other planets. How will brands differentiate themselves in this ever-increasing competitive zone by extending their established earth brand personalities to define the future of space.
VIRGIN ORBIT: Luxurious customer service. Disruptive affordability. Honest transparency. Everything you love about the Virgin brand — now in orbit! On a mission to open space for everyone, Virgin Orbit, the newest offering from the Virgin brand want to change the world by pioneering the small satellite revolution. From connecting rural communities to monitoring global climate change, their customers are using space to drive lasting positive change back on Earth.
Designing for the Virgin Orbit brand offers students an opportunity to explore and apply the high design branded experience that Virgin has established on earth in a market sector traditionally relegated to scientists, technicians and engineers. Working in collaboration with the Virgin Orbit creative team students will be able to think about a new program typology, creating interior environments combining space technology with the fun, playful, pioneer spirit of the Virgin brand.