What is space architecture? Admittedly, I still don’t know for sure.The term seems to be a pleonasm, since the designing of space actually is the goal of architecture. Thus, space architecture is architecture tout court – right?
...
CHAPTER 2: Hannes Stiefel - Sauntering through space, time and architecture
Ideas are sauntering through the air! As well as through sky and space. Well,we all know that there is no air out there. But, if you are interested in progress, you might have to strain your knowledge for a while. Architecture is not a closed discipline, neither are many other disciplines.But Architecture,as the discipline of applied imagination,is the libero in the development of our societies – the spatial expression of the culture of our time. We have to discover and explore new fields of operation where architecture may install itself and we have to develop future-orientated concepts towards a broader understanding of our environments.This is not about the question,what architecture has to do with outer space or the other way round,but it is about how architects today may bring their specific knowledge and anticipatory exercise into a kind of space which was, during the last decades, seen almost purely as a domain of science and engineering.
...
Undoubtedly, architecture is one of the most enjoyable creative professions...
...
Yet we want to look further into space and time. Fields of research might therefore be the experienced, reconstructed and imagined versions of past, present and future, as well as their societies and protagonists, their symbols, myths, metaphors and phantasms, and, of course, the reflection of the relation between these topics,
architecture and space.

...
CHAPTER 1: Susmita Mohanty - Point of departure
The third genre, the Trans-Gravity genre of space architecture introduced by this book, is the point of departure. This new genre is gathering momentum. It will take space architecture to the next level and give it a whole new perspective. It will catalyze the development of new concepts that will impact the theory and practice of architecture as well as lead to exciting innovations through interdisciplinary research. It will accelerate the convergence of architecture with new media and technology leading to technologically augmented spaces; cross-over of architecture with quantum sciences leading to new modes of transportation, and cross-pollination of architecture with psychology and cognitive sciences leading to new methods of perception, communication and visualization.These are fantastic new possibilities for further contemplation.
...
Perception is the abstraction of our senses and makes our world become real.
...
CHAPTER 3: Barbara Imhof - Extended spatial perception and the implication for spaceships
Space is not only determined by conventional factors, such as physical, structural and functional;because it has lost its solely material status it is no longer possible to predefine its specific purpose.The result is a tendency to displace the attention of strategies of the order of space to the connecting plots and effects, to action and events.
...
Through virtually new environmental conditions, the virtual becomes a cultural expression of a trans-modernity.Technology not only has to include the new building and material technologies, but also the evolving computer technologies.This means that if spaces can no longer be determined by conventional factors because they have lost their material status,it is no longer possible to predefine their specific purpose. Thus, a detailed architectural program becomes obsolete and is replaced by models of behaviour and an infrastructure pattern: form allows function and form follows program. – So, if spaces cannot be determined in a conventional way, then programmatic functions in architecture cannot be planned and precisely designed.Instead, their counterparts for specific cases of human behaviour, and a framework for an infrastructure, will be introduced.
..
CHAPTER 7: Sandra Häuplik - A visual journey .
...
CHAPTER 4: Susmita Mohanty - Body-mind continuum: Spaceships to spacefarers
Human exploration, in its current form, treats the spacefarer, on one hand – as a superhuman and on the other – as a glorified worker chugging away in endless chores of scientific procedures and spaceship maintenance, leaving little or no time for exploration of inner and outer space.The focus is on the spacefarer’s performance, productivity, and effectiveness in juggling between the pressures of the mission and the stressors resulting from isolation and confinement.This needs to change. The ‘right stuff’ needs to be redefined. Spacefarers of the future should not be accomplished just physically and academically, but also have the ability to access the full potential of the human mind. On a space mission they should not aim at simply accomplishing the mission tasks assigned to them,but also explore the unknown, both within and without.They should not be limited in their interpretation and perception of the universe, but be open to possibilities unknown to,or not recognized by,the conventional quests for knowledge.
...
They may find they are not just strangers to each other in this strange land, but strangers to themselves, as well.
...
CHAPTER 5: Barbara Imhof - Relationships in extreme conditions
There is no obvious reason why sex in space flight has been tabooed so entirely.However, a probable reason is that sophisticated scientific objectives and sex seem to exclude each other in our society.
...
A space habitat is a space permeated by technology, that is inhabited by its users and would therefore clearly constitute an interface between humans and their environment. If humans are to live in extreme conditions during long-duration space flight, the form and infrastructure of their space will need to be formulated with absolute precision so that technology can truly interact with human beings, and vice versa.
...
To be able to interpret the reactions of and interactions among the crew, it is important not only to take into account the environment within and outside the habitat, but also the character and cultural background of the crew and the conditions of space occupation. In view of the complexity of these structures on an international mission, it is difficult to formulate a clear statement for architecture.Any such statementwould have to be based on experimentation and experience. Several prototypes would need to be built, reflecting the actual situation and extreme living conditions, not only for the purpose of designing life support machinery, but also with regard to isolated life in a simulation habitat. This is the only way to assess the validity of
the architectural concepts and theories devised.
...
CHAPTER 7: Sandra Häuplik - A visual journey
...
CHAPTER 6: Constance Adams - Space and architecture:Turbo-charging innovation through cross-disciplinary
There is another context into which the TRANSHAB trade study should be set:that of professional methodologies.From this point of view, the activity in question was unusual in that it involved the participation of two Architects in an advanced engineering team, contributing to the value of the technology under development by envisioning and then working toward a saleable end-product right from the project's inception.The Architects were able to make this contribution because of our training as generalists: our approach to any project is typically a holistic one, viewing a project from the inside out and maintaining an overall image of the desired outcome throughout the design and construction process.In order to accomplish this,we are trained in the basics of the various engineering disciplines,at least enough to enable us to anticipate the basic types of systems that will be necessary generally to support the harmonious accommodation of the project’s intended functions. Although this commodiousness does not always involve the ease of the human occupant and user,typically the Architect also views the people for whom a project is intended as the primary system, and – let’s face it – the only component of a building that is also capable of appreciating our work.
...
GUEST MUSES: When you are ‘walking in space’, outside the spacecraft, what kind of feeling do you get?
You’re okay.You’re okay.You’re not going to fall.The bottom is way far away. And now a second, even more intense feeling washes over me: I am not just plunging off a cliff. The entire cliff is crumbling away. It wasn’t just me falling, but everything was falling, which gave (me) even a more unsettling feeling. So, it was like you had to overcome 40 years of whatever of life experiences that (you) don’t let go when everything falls. It was a very strong, almost overwhelming sensation that
you just had to control.But I could see where it could have put me over the edge.The disorientation is paralyzing.There is no up, no down,no side. There is only three-dimensional space. Jerry Linenger,NASA Astronaut on a spacewalk around MIR, USA