Our project is for the design of a new detector facility on the site of the proposed Muon Collider at Fermilab. The basis of our work to explores the process of detection as both a scientific and ultimately spatial phenomenon which allows for the generation of knowledge from the careful observation of atomic collisions through processes of visualization. As these processes are not predetermined, rather than studying a collision event directly, information is gleaned indirectly from the resultant deformation or transformation of the surrounding substrate through which the particles move. This is registered both materially and electrically in the substrate’s history by virtue of the particle path. Ultimately, through our extensive exploration of detection at the smallest of scales, two opposing relations of particle and substrate were divined: In relation (A) the particle disturbs substrate. Alternately in relation (B) the substrate disturbs particle. In our proposal for the design of the new detector building, these two relations define and determine the character and limits of the spaces created.

To realize the process of detection at the scale of the site, we examined the processes which enable and are produced by the operation of the detector. We separated them into four interdependent categories: matter, energy, data, and human flows. For example, the transport and delivery of raw materials, components, equipment, and tools to the site develop along certain trajectories from the site periphery to the detector center. Alternately, the product of detection produces a number of carefully constructed networks of data flows that propagate from the detectors sensors. In characterizing these operations as flows, each operation acts on the site as the particle acts on the substrate, over time generating a history from which predictive models for future behaviors can be understood.

The resultant form of the disturbed site is taken as a bounding condition, similar to the operation of the detector, where each discrete component of the larger assembly signals alternately a relative absence or strength of presence. Architecturally, this translates to an absence or presence of space and occupying program within the set boundaries.