The picture is a blending of an inflatable structure by Jean-Paul Jungmann and a NASA photograph.

Halley Research Station in the Antarctic, which is the fifth British research station since 1956.

Project Eden covers a vast sub-tropical fauna landscape in the south of England.

The crewmembers of a Martian base must be protected from the hostile environment.

Design process

Isolated extreme-environment structures

Design concepts for Martian bases.

At this moment in time I'm still largely concerned with gathering information on physical, psychological, social, esthetical and technical aspects of designing a Martian base. I will try to fill this space in the coming weeks.
 

Isolated extreme-environment structures
In an extreme environment it is possible to build new structures that resemble their counterparts in more hospitable surroundings. A "rucksichtloss" procreation of these buildings with adjustments for their new environment is not an option that can be sustained on a long term base. Although the concept of a terraced house will be acceptable for most climates throughout the world with some adjustments, such as an overhang or extra insulation, it will function for isolated extreme environments. A new concept is necessary that specifically tailors for this hostile environment, a much higher form of customization is necessary.

Design concepts for extreme environments can not be tailored in such a way that they are interchangeable; so a technical concept that would work well in the middle of the Sahara desert will not work for Antarctica or the Gobi desert. Though it might be possible to interchange the functional and sociological concepts of an extreme-environment structure, these aspects however are related to the structure in isolation rather then the structure being situated in a hostile environment. Isolation is usually caused by a structure being placed in a hostile environment but is not exclusively connected to it, a prison for example is an isolated structure for the inmates but is often placed in an urban setting. (although for the inmates their interior environment is probably also a hostile environment).

An extreme-environment structure can conceptually be linked to other such structures when looking at the provision for inhabitants with regards to how they conduct their life inside an isolated structure. This is because most extreme-environment structures are also isolated structures, where the inhabitants cannot leave the habitat at any time without advance preparation, special clothing or the use of vehicles. For this reason an extreme-environment structure has to provide all the facilities that its inhabitants might need during a long period of time, and accordingly must often be self sufficient, for a large part in any case. An Antarctic research station and a deep sea laboratory can have very similar facilities to provide for the inhabitants and would benefit equally from research done into social behavior that inhabitants of isolated structures develop. The microenvironment within these structures will primarily vary due to the amount of inhabitants and the time that will be spent there. Only when the extreme environments are so drastically different, that they actually penetrate the technical outer skin, will the functional aspects within a structure have to change, the most obvious being a limited gravity or total absence of gravity. These environmental effects can not be countered by a "skin" that defines interior and exterior and for this reason will have a major impact on the functional interior design of a structure:

"Thus, gravitationally, there are three principal directions - up, down and horizontal - and three basic architectural elements - ceiling(roof), floor and wall -. These common-sense ideas, rooted in the experience of terrestrial gravity, permeate architectural theory."

But although the technical and functional plan of such a structure might be entirely different to a structure built on Earth it would still have to conform to its inhabitants that are socially no different from their counterparts on Earth. Privacy and personal space, the need to relate and communication with loved ones is necessary in any environment where productive work is wanted. The human factor is the backbone for any isolated and extreme-environment structure and data gathered in this area can be used and applied to any isolated extreme-environment structure.

An isolated extreme-environment structure can therefore be seen as having three layers: the technical outer layer that protects the people inside from the external environment, the functional layer that allows the inhabitants to interact with the structure and its interior and finally there is the social layer that constitutes the connection with the inhabitants and their internal relationships. The final layer is always the same for any environment while the first two layers will be less and less compatible as the external environments differ.

Design concepts for Martian bases.

These layers are not independent objects that can be separately designed and finally shoehorned together. The layers interact with each other and conversely the architectural concept should be applied to the first two layers and through this application create the necessary requirements for the third layer. This third layer can also be used to generate recommendations and requirements for the other two levels.
The concept that needs to be developed for a specific isolated extreme environment structure such as a Martian base is unique, but the ideas that it is founded on need not be new. There are a multitude of designs, models, theories, and ideas that can in some way contribute to a specifically tailored concept for a Martian base. Most appropriately a concept should in some way be applicable for all the layers much like a fractal's patterns works at many different levels. This means that new concepts can only be applied if appropriate research is done in all the fields relevant to the three layers, just a grasp of the technical side will just create great quality coffins.
The outer layer is the membrane that separates the outer hostile environment from the controlled environment inside, and determines the construction of the structure. Visually this is the most dominant layer; the skin and construction needs a concept that will allow adequate connection to the second and third layer but predominantly it needs to find the perfect concept for its specific terrain.
One area of particular interest is the natural world which has proven that it can provide a specific answer for a specific need. A lot of architectural and structural designs that we know of have been copied from the living and dead natural world.

First Review

My first review should be at the end of November or the start of December and I will display the results here.

Second Review

None

Third Review

None