New Spaces for Living

Anastasiya Stepanova shares her first-hand account of the work and life at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA. The station is a project of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization pursuing the goal of manned journey to Mars. 

Inspired by the ideas of the NASA's project ARES Mars Mission for Mars exploration, we propose our independent and novel vision of a versatile autonomous aircraft designed for Martian conditions.

Read about self-sustaining artificial islands meant to deal with the consequences of the sea level rise.

Inspired by advances in biotechnology, a visionary project by Vincent Calebaut combines flying residences with renewable energy sources for the coastal infrastructure.

The ambitious project of a Dutch company and of the government of the Maldives envisage the construction of artificial islands with total area of more than 800 hectares.

A stunning design by Vincent Callebaut, based on the Möbius strip, to mark a park entrance in Tawain.

According to the demographic report of the United Nations organization, the human population will increase by the number of 2 to 3,5 billion people until 2050. An estimated billion hectares of new agricultural land (think of yet another Canada, but with a mild climate) will be needed to grow enough food to feed such a number of people, if the today's farming practices continue to be applied. Further enlargements of the cultivated area are either not cost effective due to climatic conditions and remoteness from the consumer or fraught with environmental problems. This problem of the future needs to be solved already today. Part of the solution might be moving the agricultural production closer to end consumers, perhaps even right into the cities.

The authors of this unusual project conceive a luxurious life aboard a gigantic zeppelin named Strato Cruiser. They believe that a helium-filled airship can carry a restaurant with a separate kitchen, a spa, a swimming pool, luxury suites and a host of other amenities. Such an airship can serve a flying home or an office for uber-rich, tired of marine yachts. Or, it could be a flying hotel, a club, or an exotic vacation destination. 

The project Eco-city 2020 foresees the construction of an artificial underground city inside the Mir diamond mine, the second largest excavated hole on the planet. The mine is about 1200 meter wide at the top and over 520 meter deep. Open mining of diamonds in this quarry is not more profitable, and will be continued by the undeground method, while a huge open pit will be left empty. If the project gets going, the mine would be completely covered with a glass dome, designed to protect the city from the Siberian weather.

Unusual things often happen in unusual places. In Silicon Valley, for instance. Here, a group of eccentric IT professionals and millionaires decided to ground an independent state in international waters.