Beginning with the question of how to make all 300 million US citizens feel like a cohesive community, we decided to study how people in the US Armed Services work together to get through tough situations while each individual maintains a balance between giving themselves to the group versus keeping a sense of personal identity.

The project contains three levels of existence; individual, communal, and universal; which are physically and visually connected throughout the main space with the airport’s USO. Fifteen installations of typical house-shaped stainless steel boxes are placed flowing from outside to inside and back outside.

Aerial images of hometowns from across the USA are shown on the outside of the boxes. Within, personalized sculptures relate to the individuals interviewed. The suspended interior boxes contain water-jet-cut star constellations allowing powerful LED lighting to project an interconnected universe across the building’s ceiling. Motion sensors and custom programming will allow the LED’s in all 15 boxes to pulsate and change colors reflecting the activity in the space.

(Photography by Matthew Salenger.)