DESIGN STUDIO APPROACH

materials of inflatable and deployable structures, which can be efficiently packed and deployed to a greater volume on site. The students also explored habitat typologies and their specific characteristic of modularity, flexibility and expansion concepts. In dependence of the mission scenario additional transport vehicles for increased mobility and long range exploration is required on site. Other necessary infrastructure includes facilities for gaining and storing energy, robotics and industrial manufacturing, in-situproducution with on-site materials, and much more.

The Mars Science City design studio took place from March to June 2020 at the Vienna University of Technology. During this time, 12 projects were developed and elaborated by the students.

As usual, the studio started at the beginning of March with input lectures. Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger introduced the studio topic and summarized important aspects of going to and building on Mars. Norbert Frischauf gave an overall input on Mars features and required technologies, and Olivier Lamborelle talked about the work on the International Space Station and future training facilities. Following the input lectures, we discussed issues interested for the students and they chose a research topic to prepare for the design of a Mars habitation project.

The topics included basic information on Mars characteristics, specific environmental challenges, science opportunities and past, current and future planned missions. Furthermore specific know-how on required technologies for habitation design; thermal control systems, power supply and energy stowage, shielding, maintenance and supply, … to name a few.

Of great importance for a remote and extreme environmental habitat on Mars are crew- and life support systems, in-situ-resource utilisation and the implementation of technical greenhouses for food production and recycling. Different construction methods were analysed and examined. Research included geometric studies, and

Overall the goal is to secure a safe and sustainable work and living environment. For the human habitation design challenges related to human activities include food production, storage and recycling, hygiene and waste collection. Social constraints and challenges include intensive social interaction and isolation, personal space and territorial issues. Each student team researched and prepared their presentations on selected themes. However, shortly before the next meeting, the course was switched to distance learning due to Covid-19.

It was challenging, and all of us had to adapt to this new situation. The topic of the studio was changed in that together with the students we decided to work on a more detailed concept for a city ON Mars.

The approach of the studio was to first translate their their vision, of what they would like to see in a future city on Earth, into a futuristic architectural concept. After presentation and joint discussions, students were asked to think of how this vision could start.

What would be needed now, in order to realize this distant dream?

This ‚twist of thinking‘ was very challenging for the students.

During the whole semester we could only meet online, and students were spread around the world. Some of the students got up early in the morning to join the sessions. We met regularly and all meetings were open to all. Similarly to the normal studio, students could listen to and ask questions about other project presentations. Often, we had guests from the larger space community to join us. Our guest usually started with a short input lecture, followed by intense project discussion with the students. The team of Querkraft, Clemens Russ and Fabian Kahr delivered a lecture on the Austrian pavillon in Dubai, Georgios Gourlis from Jung Ingenieure talked with the students about sustainable energy design. We had a lecture on how to plan for future cities by Katja Schechtner, a lecture on Mars mobility by Gerhard Schwetz, a lecture on the Mars ICE House by Christina Ciardullo, and a lecture on Mars science by Gernot Grömer. David Nixon joined us for an intensive project discussion and input on space architecture.

In-between we had an interesting mid-term presentation together with students from the robotic department at the TU Delft lead by Henriette Bier.

The final project meeting was held public and acted as preliminary design review. External reviewers from all over the world joined the discussions with the students.