Designing for Mars Now: A Thriving Architecture for Human Habitation

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Chiofalo, Emilie
Area of Honors:
Architecture
Degree:
Bachelor of Architecture
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Peter Aeschbacher, Thesis Supervisor
Orsolya Gaspar, Thesis Honors Advisor
Rebecca Lynn Henn, Thesis Supervisor
Keywords:
Space architecture
Human wellness in space
WELL Building Standard
Mars habitat design
Biophilic design
Space habitat livability
Crew cohesion and isolation
Permanent Mars settlement
Space colonization
Psychological wellbeing in extreme environments
Space exploration human factors
space architecture
human wellness in space
WELL Building Standard
Mars habitat design
Mars
Space
Biophilic design
space habitat liveability
crew isolation
Mars settlement
space colonization
psychological wellbeing in extreme environments
space exploration
Abstract:
Space architecture has captivated the minds of engineers, architects, and visionaries for decades. The field has produced remarkable innovations, from proposals to 3D print structures using Martian regolith, to utopian concepts of rotating cities and orbiting ecosystems. Yet amid this wealth of technical ingenuity and speculative ambition, a fundamental question has gone unanswered: how do astronauts simply live? This thesis argues that the most critical and overlooked dimension of space habitat design is human wellness. While existing research tends to prioritize either engineering feasibility or utopian idealism, little attention has been paid to the lived experience of the people who will inhabit these structures. What conditions allow an astronaut to not merely survive, but to thrive over the course of a mission to Mars? This thesis proposes a permanent Mars habitat designed using technologies available today, including inflatable structures, large-scale 3D printing, and robotic self-assembling modules, synthesized with the pragmatic yet visionary spirit of 1970s space architecture. Guided by the WELL Building Standard as both ethical compass and experiential framework, the design ensures that a crew of four to seven research astronauts can live comfortably in space. Mars's environmental constraints, including reduced gravity, intense solar radiation, and extreme atmospheric conditions, are also addressed to ground the project in realism. By centering the astronaut rather than the mission, this thesis offers a new framework for space habitat design, one that measures success not only in structural integrity and technical performance, but in the health, comfort, and wellbeing of the humans inside.