Bang Zoom, To the Moon Greg Lynn

[Image via Life Without Buildings via io9.]

In his blog Life Without Buildings, my fellow Tulane Alum, Jimmy Stamp, discusses the latest proposed moon habitat from NASA. Like most of the other articles I’ve seen he discusses the igloo-like shape and inflatable (gas-itechture) structure, yet this discourse is really lacking.

What we are seeing here is not just another exploratory vehicle that will double as a place for astronauts to sleep. Consider Voyager for a second Ann Druyan recorded all sorts of sounds emblematic of the human race, to act as a time capsule, a display of who we are; this is the first piece of human architecture to be built on another celestial body, and I have to ask, where’s the outrage? Of all the structures in all of human history, this is what we build, an inflatable breast? It looks like something Greg Lynn would create, but instead it was designed by engineers? In addition, since when do we allow engineers to create the first lunar human dwelling? Where is the discussion of the space it makes, the space within and the views out? Are there views out? How does it interact with its environment? All of these questions are not a part of the discourse, but they should be. If this was going to be built on earth, in Antartica or below the ocean, these questions would be asked, and maybe those questions are coming. But the discourse should go beyond the poetics of space in space, how is this station powered? Are they using solar arrays, or can they use solar glazing and create views and power at the same time? Is this going to receive oxygen from earth in canisters or farm it through phytoplankton and algae? I guess I’m just an all or nothing kinda guy, don’t tempt me with these images and not give me a full photo tour and write up of the entire moon base.