Moon Building

By Andrew Wyne



If and when we are able to regularly travel to and from the moon it would be a great place for many things. Whether that is a space defense station or a second Hubel telescope for viewing outer space; it would inevitably be a place where architecture would be needed. People would need to live there for more than a few months and be able to live to do research for months at a time. Being an Architecture student it makes me wonder who would be qualified to design the buildings that would start to house and support life on the moon. Well as it turns out there has been somewhat of a consensus.

The European space agency thinks Norman Foster should be strongly considered for the position. The British architect is one whose designs seem to have somewhat of a space aesthetic. When it comes to building on the moon there also seems to be a general idea that the geodesic dome, made popular by Buckminster Fuller, would be the most realistic type of construction. Giving the structures a sort of soap bubble look across the moon, it would be able to support itself as well as many other things required for living.

Now even though there are quite a few other obstacles in building on the moon, such as; gravity, transporting materials, oxygen, and many other things. I think the positives far outweigh the negatives and as soon as many of the problems are figured out it would be a great advance to all of humanity. To read more on the ideas and information of building on the moon look to this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/22/moon-norman-foster-architecture