The Studio Approach

Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger & San-Hwan Lu

Theme

Just a three-day journey via spaceship from Earth, the Moon beckons. Only 12 people have set foot on the Moon so far, and since December 1972 no one has been there at all....

During the 2012 spring term students in the Master of Architecture program realized their vision of a future research base on the Moon. This topic was new in every respect to all stude nts. Lunar conditions are completely different to those on Earth, from a physical point of view (gravity, radiation, atmosphere, micrometeorites, etc.) as well as from a social and psychological point of view (limited space, microsocieties, isolation, etc.). Re-thinking design challenges through a change of perspective has been a critical part of this design studio.

“When introducing architecture students to a design studio in Space Architecture, it is always a challenge to orient them to the unique and peculiar characteristics of designing human habitation in vacuum and reduced gravity regimes. Typically, the faculty presents a broad overview of the Space Architecture discipline, and to introduce the students to leading conce pts and accomplishme nts. The challenge is a difficult one, given the shortness of time for a quarter or semester, and the variety of the students’ backgrounds, with some stronger or weaker in engineering, human factors, materials science, and physics. Also, the students often start from differing levels of professional preparation and training, so it is inevitable that each one interprets the information differently and takes an individual and often idiosyncratic approach.” [Marc M.

Cohen]

Strategy

To prepare for this challenge the students were initially tasked with analyzing selected topics related to building on the Moon, including the physical and geographical characteristics of the Moon, lunar habi tats, human factors and habitability. A comprehensive list of the papers and literature in our library was provided, as well as relevant publications from spacearchitect.org. In the first phase of the studio a settlement strategy based on a hypothetical scenario derived from astronauts’ experiences was developed by the stude nts. The emphasis of the second phase of the studio was on the design and impleme ntation of a lunar research station.

This course has been accompanied by theme-specific lectures and workshops with space experts (p.8). The ‘Moon Day‘ launched a series of lectures from notable researchers, architects and other experts in the field of space science accompanying the studio and providing the necessary scientific support. Guest speakers included space experts from UNOOSA, OEWF, DLR, ESA and NASA amongst others. This panel of experts also served as guest critics during the whole process and were invited to give comments at various stages of the design process.

„The challenge for them is to develop and pursue that concept while also providing for other programmatic needs and protecting the crew against the severe environmental threats of the space environment.“

[Marc M. Cohen]

Structure of the Booklet

The wide range of projects in this booklet reflect the diverse backgrounds of the stude nts, coming from Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey as well as an aerospace engineer from Italy participating in the program as part of his thesis.

In contrast to standard studio publications, this booklet introduces all presented projects with an adjacent evaluation by our external reviewer and space expert Marc M. Cohen.