Secret Operation 610 – A Mobile Lab

Delft, design, lab, NATO, Air force, Cold War, Dutch, f-16, phantom, aircraft, technology

Delft, design, lab, NATO, Air force, Cold War, Dutch, f-16, phantom, aircraft, technology

Delft, design, lab, NATO, Air force, Cold War, Dutch, f-16, phantom, aircraft, technology

A consortium of Dutch architects and artists have just unveiled Secret Operation 610 – a menacing looking mobile laboratory.

Created over an 18 year period by Rietveld Landscape, Studio Frank Havermans, and Koos Schaart, Secret Operation 610 is designed to reflect the tense, rigid atmosphere present during the Cold War. To compound this design theme the 610 is housed at a 380-acre former NATO air force base that was once home to F-15s and Phantoms which stood ready to defend the West from any advance of the Iron Curtain.

While the Secret Operation 610’s design is definitely menacing its laboratory is actually being used to make society better. Students from the Delft University of Technology use both the 610 and its hanger as a classrooms where the future of carbon-free, silent aircraft are being developed.

Images Courtesy of Rietveld Landscape