Alien Romulus: Romulus Lab

Alien Romulus - Romulus Lab
In Pre-Production, I was given the task by Director Fede Alvarez and Production Designer Naaman Marshall to design the Romulus Lab, a key space in the third act of the film which hosts a series of key scientific discoveries for the protagonists.
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The brief given to me was to produce various concepts for an ‘oval shaped’ room that was to feel more ‘modern’ than the other spaces we see on the ship. As the majority of the ship draws heavily from ‘Alien’(1979) and ‘Aliens’ (1986), the key challenge here was to propose a design that still felt grounded in the Weyland Yutani aesthetic we’ve seen before, but slightly more unique in order to detach itself from the other spaces, and highlight its level of importance visually.
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To establish a strong visual language, I proposed the central part of the ceiling to drop down and act as a centrepiece of the space that gestures towards the most important part of the room; a central desk containing monitors with critical information, and a fridge containing a vaccine that is discovered by the protagonists. This ceiling compresses the space and adds weight over the characters that intensifies the pressure of their situation.
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Recessed pipework top-lit with ceiling grates was a design decision made to tie into the traditional industrial Alien aesthetic, whilst hinting to the viewer of spaces above, and alluding to a potential hiding space for the Xenomorph to induce fear. I felt it was also important to elevate the floor level of the lab to differentiate it from the previous scenes of the film to signify its feeling of ‘importance’ upon entry. Cables are loose, grates and stools have fallen to help sell the idea that the space is abandoned.
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