Sending astronauts into space is a big challenge — good engineering and ultimately their survival, are paramount.

But as the prospect of extended space travel looks inevitable, architecture is knocking on the capsule door with the aim of going beyond survival to create more liveable areas to work, eat, recreate and sleep.

Craig McCormack, from UWA’s Architecture discipline in the School of Design, is a passionate advocate of the emerging field that has traditionally been seen as the stuff of science fiction.

^{Craig McCormack, UWA School of Design}

“It is essentially the design of habitable environments for people to live in, away from our planet,” Mr McCormack said.

“Think of the Apollo missions at the height of the space race in the 1960s — the glory days when people were going into space and on to the moon.

“These were military individuals with military training. It was more about survival and competing for dominance in the midst of the Cold War. It wasn’t a space conducive to life and living as it has the potential to become.”

“Architecture should be a necessity to make liveable environments and to one day supporting life amongst the stars.” Craig McCormack, UWA School of Design

Now with extended missions to the Moon and potentially Mars on the cards, there is a real need for better-designed spaces for living that consider the health and mental wellbeing of future space travellers. Time spent away from Earth in highly confined spaces could increase from the several days it took the Apollo-era astronauts’ lunar missions to several years if astronauts are sent to Mars.

Mr McCormack said the restrictions on materials and design for capsules and space stations was onerous but the challenge of creating the ultimate small living area was also thrilling.

“It may be about bringing in a certain light, controlling light, keeping it out; it could be the texture of materials, their colour; it could be the internal lighting and how all these elements and more can be consolidated to create more comfortable living environments in the harshest of environments,” he said.

“These are perhaps some of the elements that architecture can begin to manipulate to better design for outer space travel.

“Architecture can have a positive and negative effect and I am interested in the role architecture can play in space.”

While state-of-the-art engineering would always be crucial, he said agencies such as NASA were now employing architects to design more liveable modules including on the future replacement for the International Space Station.

He said space architecture was not widely taught or understood even within institutions but it is offered at the University of Houston in Texas where Mr McCormack studied for 12 months after receiving a Fulbright Western Australian Postgraduate Scholarship. International awareness was increasing with a recent symposium held in Paris dedicated entirely to the discipline of space architecture.

Mr McCormack is heartened by the increased awareness and is keen to encourage his architecture students to think of life beyond Earth and the role that terrestrial architects might play in the future of off-world design.

Recently, Mr McCormack tasked a Master of Architecture design studio with designing a habitat for deployment on the surface of Mars. The students were supported with assistance from several space architects based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

He and a colleague, UWA alumnus Tristan Morgan, also worked on designing a speculative bridge for a moon crater as part of an international competition calling for aspirational lunar architecture ideas.

The drawings show an astronaut walking across the bridge with the earth visible over the Moon’s horizon.

He is realistic about the prospect of his bridge and Martian structures being built, but said opening students’ minds to what may be possible one day was exciting and could help establish the benefit of architecture as a vital discipline off-Earth.

“Living in space shouldn’t be akin to living in a dog kennel,” he said.

“Architecture should be a necessity to make liveable environments and to one day supporting life amongst the stars.”