BIG in collaboration with ICON and SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) will work with NASA to begin research and development of a space-based construction system that can support extra-terrestrial habitation.
NASA’s Artemis program has allocated the Moon as the first off-Earth site for sustainable surface exploration. BIG and ICON will begin designing a sustainable lunar habitat, named Project Olympus. The robust structures need to provide better thermal, radiation, and micrometeorite protection than metal or inflatable habitats can offer. The team is driven by the need to make humanity a spacefaring civilization.
"To explain the power of architecture, "formgiving" is the Danish word for design, which literally means to give form to that which has not yet been given form. This becomes fundamentally clear when we venture beyond Earth and begin to imagine how we are going to build and live on entirely new worlds. With ICON we are pioneering new frontiers – both materially, technologically and environmentally. The answers to our challenges on Earth very well might be found on the Moon.”
Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Olympus is BIG’s second project in outer space, after developing Mars Science City. For which a prototype is currently being developed in Dubai. Building on their experience with Mars Science City, BIG explored various building forms ideal for containing atmospheric pressure and optimized for protection from cosmic and solar radiation. The habitat will be constructed via groundbreaking robotic technology that only makes use of in-situ resources and leaves no waste behind.
