Space Architecture

Forty years on from the first moon landing, architecture in Spaceis entering a new era. Over the last decade, there has been afundamental shift in the Space industry from short-term pioneeringexpeditions to long-term planning for colonisation, and newventures such as Space tourism. Architects are now involved indesigning the interiors of long-term habitable structures in Space,such as the International Space Station, researching advancedrobotic fabrication technologies for building structures on theMoon and Mars, envisioning new 'space yachts' for the super-rich,and building new facilities, such as the Virgin Galactic 'SpaceportAmerica' in New Mexico designed by Foster + Partners. Meanwhile themystique of Space remains as alluring as ever, as high-profiledesigners and educators - such as Greg Lynn - arerunning designs studios drawing upon ever more inventivecomputational design techniques. This issue of AD features the mostsignificant current projects underway and highlights key areas ofresearch in Space, such as energy, materials, manufacture androbotics. It also looks at how this research and investment in newtechnologies might transfer to terrestrial design and construction. Space architects: Constance Adams, Marc Cohen, Ondrej Doule,Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger, Scott Howe, BrentSherwood, Madhu Thangavelu, Andreas Vogler, Robert Zubrin. Architects: Bevk Perovic Arhitekti, Dekleva GregoricArhitekti, Foster + Partners, Neil Leach, Greg Lynn, OFISarchitects, SADAR + VUGA.