There is no physical place further from the margins of human experience than Mars, and yet, in a matter of decades humans will travel to, and colonize the Red Planet. In this studio conducted at Woodbury School of Architecture, students explored the future of the colonization of Mars through the lenses of three private space exploration brands: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX . While government agencies are likely to make science and research their primary objective for visiting Mars, these corporations are likely to be more interested in aspects of space tourism and exploration to entice future travelers.
Borrowing the tools that marketing professionals use to establish a brand’s essence and attributes, students explored how travelers will withstand not only its harsh environmental conditions, but how the human psyche will cope for extended periods in confined interior environments 140 million miles from home. They were asked to address and propose design solutions for the more intimate issues of life on Mars, those which are perhaps more critical to the success of the human race becoming an interplanetary species, and to tie these solutions back to the missions and values of their given space brands. Critical spatial design challenges included the necessity for privacy and social interaction; prevention of claustrophobia and isolation; maximizing opportunities for daylight, passing of time and seasons; mood maintenance; and connection to both Earth’s and Mars’s version of nature.
Students worked to build the familiarity of the home planet into an alien landscape using form, light, technology and materiality. Design for Mars ultimately served as a provocation: a challenge to current contemporary design issues, and its interaction with psychology, human need, society structures, climate, technology, and ethics here on Planet Earth.
Lara Hoad and Todd Erlandson, Senior Lecturers, Woodbury School of Architecture