Archinect - News

SOM's new Schwarzman College of Computing opens at MIT

2024-05-01T14:02:00-04:00

The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing sciences offers 185,000 square feet of labs, collaborative spaces, classrooms, and faculty areas inside a shingled profile that defines two eight-story pavilions.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The structure's design was limited by an existing railroad track running along the site’s north axis, creating the need for a 44-foot bridge that connects to either volume across three levels. After entering its oak-finished triple-height lobby from a central plaza area, engineers and researchers have space to explore flexible arrangements in the offices along its perimeter on Vassar Street.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The building includes social kitchens, a large 250-seat lecture ...

MIT researchers develop rapid 3D printing process with liquid metal

2024-01-30T12:40:00-05:00

News is circulating about a novel method for 3D printing liquid metals that was developed by researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Self-Assembly Lab.

The invention can print furniture-sized components using molten aluminum and a ceramic nozzle graphite printer. They say their discovery works without re-melting the recycled materials, as is the case with many current technologies. It resembles a small furnace into which book-sized blocks of the material are fed. The technique, called liquid metal printing (LMP), creates material that is durable enough to withstand CNC milling and other steps in the post-design delivery process.

Image credit: MIT Self-Assembly Lab

The hope now is to refine the technique to allow for more consistent and higher-resolution prints. Such rapid and deployable solutions could become an attractive choice for architectural designers looking to scale up development and building projects in the future.

Image credit: MIT Self-Asse...

Shape the Future of the Built Environment with MIT's Master in Real Estate Development

2023-09-21T08:30:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by MIT Center for Real Estate

The MIT Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) offers an unparalleled education in real estate practice. Our groundbreaking MSRED degree presents a program that is rigorous, concentrated, multidisciplinary, and geared toward direct application.

Candidates for the MSRED degree often come to MIT with several years of experience within the built environment. The program offers students a chance to sharpen their skills by working with other professionals of exceptional promise. Building partnerships that will last long after graduation, MSRED students learn team building in an international context, applying research to real-world problems in a disciplined and intellectual framework.

Image courtesy of MIT CRE.

If you would like to learn more about the MSRED Program at MIT, consider participating in one of our upcoming information sessions.

Virtual Info Sessions

October 23, 2023 @ 5:30-7pm ET | Information Session (V...

MIT Media Lab group unveils Living Knitwork Pavilion at Burning Man 2023

2023-09-14T11:42:00-04:00

A group of designers, artists, and technologists from MIT have unveiled details of a pavilion delivered by the team for Burning Man 2023. The Living Knitwork Pavilion is described by the group as “an architectural-scale interactive 3D knitted textile shade structure that leverages electrically and optically-active yarns and explores photochromism by day and light-movements interaction at night.”

Image credit: Irmandy Wicaksono/MIT Media Lab

The modular pavilion comprises a dodecagonal pyramid, measuring 18 feet in height and 26 feet in width. Crafted from 3D knitted yarns that are both optically and electrically active, the pavilion senses movements and changes its color and luminescence in response, creating a unique optic experience across the day and night.

Image credit: Irmandy Wicaksono/MIT Media Lab

The pavilion is formed of twelve petals, each embedded with functional yarns. The yarns can ...

'I Would Prefer Not To' looks at refused commissions, the decisions behind them, and their impact on architecture

2023-08-30T17:38:00-04:00

The second season of The Architectural League of New York’s new interview series I Would Prefer Not To is gaining popularity thanks to its ability to shed light on an overlooked area of architectural practice.

A cross-collaboration between the League and MIT's Critical Broadcasting Lab, the series explores the topic of commissioning and the refusal of architects to work with a particular client.

Guests, including Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, speak in detail about the nature of refusals, which The Architectural League argues constitutes a permanent part of architectural history. The stories they share touch on key aspects such as ethics and professional practice, decision-making, business development, the tug-of-war over visions for a project, clashes of creativity, and more.

“Decisions to refuse a commission, or withdraw from one, by definition, stay hidden from public scrutiny, and thus also hidden from architectural history,” The Architectural League notes. “Withdrawals of thi...

MIT researchers create strong, ultra-light architected materials using kirigami techniques

2023-08-24T14:02:00-04:00

Researchers at MIT have developed a lightweight architected material inspired by the cellular structures found in natural materials such as honeycombs and bones. Produced with techniques borrowed from the Japanese kirigami paper-cutting technique, the strong metal lattices are lighter than cork while also holding customizable mechanical properties.

Image courtesy of the researchers via MIT

Using kirigami techniques, the MIT team led by Professor Neil Gershenfeld of the Center for Bits and Atoms has produced plate lattice structures on a larger scale than was previously possible. The structures are described as "steel cork" by Gershenfeld due to their lightweight nature combined with high strength and stiffness.

“To make things like cars and airplanes, a huge investment goes into tooling. This manufacturing process is without tooling, like 3D printing. But unlike 3D printing, our process can set the limit for record material properties,” Gershenfeld said in a statement.

Image courtesy...

Researchers develop user-friendly interface for creating complex material designs

2023-08-07T09:00:00-04:00

Researchers from MIT and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria have developed a computational technique that makes it easier for a user to quickly design a metamaterial cell from any of those smaller building blocks, and then evaluate the resulting metamaterial’s properties.

The method, similar to a CAD system, allows users to quickly model complex metamaterials and artificial structures with complex geometries that determine their mechanical properties and explore other potential shapes. It is challenging for engineers to know what material will yield the desired results due to the infinite amount of arrangements possible. As a result, only a fraction of usable metamaterials are explored.

Procedural Metamaterials: A Unified Procedural Graph for Metamaterial Design via Liane Makatura (Youtube). Project authors: Authors: Liane Makatura*, Bohan Wang*, Yi-Lu Chen, Bolei Deng, Chris Wojtan, Bernd Bickel, and Wojciech Matusik

The researchers from MIT and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria found that metamaterials can be represented as a graph structure that can be altered by applying various parameters until a suitable design is reached. Throughout the process, designers can preview their structure at any point. Going forward, the researchers...

MIT team tests open-source cooling chamber using 75% less energy than refrigerated cold rooms

2023-07-27T11:18:00-04:00

MIT researchers have published details of a new open-source forced-air evaporative cooling chamber. Described as being less expensive than refrigerated cold rooms, the chamber is intended to offer accessible cold storage for smallholder farmers, as well as significantly reduce post-harvest waste in hot and dry climates.

The chamber, which can be housed in a used shipping container and powered by either grid electricity or solar panels, has a capacity of 168 produce crates. The design uses industrial fans to draw in hot, dry air, which is passed through a porous wet pad. This creates cool, humid air that is directed through crates of produce, allowing rapid cooling. The air is then directed through the raised floor and to a channel between the insulation and the exterior container wall, where it flows to the exhaust holes near the top of the side walls.

The project was led by MIT Professor Leon Glicksman of the Building Technology Program within the Department of Architecture and Res...

MIT's 'Ways of Seeing' project offers scholars renewed access to four important cultural sites in Afghanistan

2023-07-05T14:24:00-04:00

A new research project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has produced a useful documentation of four hard-to-access multireligious architectural heritage sites in Afghanistan using a combination of digital renderings, satellite imaging, crowdsourced data, and XR technology.

MIT News recently profiled the school’s “Ways of Seeing: Documenting Endangered Built Heritage in Afghanistan” effort, which was the product of multiple departments and research centers within the university. The project was led by MIT’s Sociotechnical Systems Research Center director Fotini Christia, who said it “combines field data, technology, and art to protect heritage and serve the world” in a true evocation of the university’s cross-disciplinary collaborative tradition.

The end result produced two open-access digital archives co-managed via Archnet and MIT Libraries by the Aga Khan Documentation Center and Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Class of 2006 M.Arch graduate Jelena Pejkovic contributed ...

This Earth Day, watch PBS’ new highlight of early solar pioneer Mária Telkes

2023-04-21T16:46:00-04:00

For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world’s first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT.

The Hungarian-born scientist developed more than 20 patents in her lifetime and aided Eleanor Raymond on the development of the Dover Sun House in 1948.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by American Experience (@americanexperiencepbs)

"[She] knew you can’t just wait for society to be ready. You need to sell them on this idea," historian Sara Shreve-Price says in the documentary. "You need to convince them that this is the time for the idea. If we want the sustainable future, we don't just need the technology, we need to want the technology."

Director Amanda Pollak's recent Q&A about the film with Architect magazine can be found here.

Baking soda may help concrete absorb carbon, MIT researchers find

2023-04-11T11:54:00-04:00

New research from MIT has found that adding sodium bicarbonate, otherwise known as baking soda, to concrete mixtures may make a significant dent in the material’s carbon footprint. The findings, published recently in the journal PNAS Nexus, also suggest that the addition of sodium bicarbonate may accelerate construction times through quicker concrete setting.

The research was led by MIT professors of civil and environmental engineering Admir Masic and Franz-Josef Ulm, MIT postdoc Damian Stefaniuk, doctoral student Marcin Hajduczek, and James Weaver from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. With concrete production accounting for approximately 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and concrete being the world’s second most consumed material after water, the team sees innovation in the material’s environmental performance as being a key component to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

An MIT-born startup is pitching their idea for green roof additions to the Parisian skyline

2023-04-05T16:45:00-04:00

A new startup born out of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning has developed a green roof concept aimed at improving the quality of life of Parisians while addressing a host of environmental and urban health concerns for the ancient city of 2.1 million.

Roofscapes is the brainchild of Master of Architecture students Eytan Levi, Olivier Faber, and Tim Cousin. The trio all hail from France and met while studying as undergraduates at the EPFL Lausanne. Together, they see the concept as a way to “unlock” the potential of the thousands of pitched roof structures throughout Paris that have for centuries gone unused.

“We knew we wanted to have an impact on the built environment that was different than what a lot of architectural firms were doing,” Faber told MIT News for a recent profile of the venture. “We were thinking about a startup, but mostly we came to MIT because we knew we’d have a lot of agency to grow our skills and competency in adapting the built environment to the cli...

MIT and Harvard scientists uncover the key behind ancient Rome's 'self-healing' concrete

2023-01-10T12:44:00-05:00

A team of researchers from MIT and Harvard University, working with laboratories in Italy and Switzerland, has made progress in understanding how concrete used by the ancient Romans has lasted for millennia. The discovery, outlined in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, centers on the ancient civilization’s use of white lime minerals in their concrete mix, which can “self-heal” the material over time.

The white chunks, often referred to as “lime clasts,” had previously been disregarded as evidence of poor mixing practices by the Romans, with researchers instead attributing the durability of ancient Roman structures to the use of volcanic ash in cement mixes. However, the latest findings suggest the lime clasts are, in fact, the ingredient that gave the concrete a self-healing capability.

“The idea that the presence of these lime clasts was simply attributed ...

MIT research finds that commuting distances are standard regardless of city size

2023-01-03T11:24:00-05:00

Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home and work locations.

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

The research project was launched in response to the group’s observation that despite the significant increase in the size of cities over decades, commuting distances and times in larger cities have remained stable versus smaller cities. “The conserved commuting properties are quite counter-intuitive,” the team notes, “as the distance from the periphery to the urban center in larger cities is obviously greater than that in medium- or small-sized cities.”

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

With little existing large-scale modeling on the subject, the researchers analyzed the mobile phone location data to better understand the similarities...

MIT researchers develop method for 3D printing wood

2022-12-29T16:49:00-05:00

A study published then in the journal Materials Today shed light on the world’s first 3D-printed lab-grown wood. By the means of this research, the scientist at MIT demonstrated that deforestation is no longer needed to produce timber.

The researchers developed customizable wood using the cells of a flowering plant named Zinnia elegans, known commonly as zinnia. They first treated the cells with a liquid medium and then a gel solution composed of hormones and nutrients. The researchers adjusted the concentration of the hormones in order to control the stiffness, strength, density, and other properties of the grown plant substance.

According to Interesting Engineering, this is the first time tissue engineering has been used to produce plant matter in a lab. Moving forward, a company named FORAY bioscience was founded by lead author Ashley Beckwith to further develop methods for creating 3D printed wood.

MIT develops 3D printed material that uses air pressure to warn about its own movement

2022-08-12T11:58:00-04:00

Researchers at MIT have developed a type of 3D printed material that can sense how it is moving and interacting with its surrounding environment. The 3D printed lattice materials contain networks of air-filled channels, allowing engineers to detect when bending, squeezing, or stretching of the structure causes a change in air pressure through the channels.

“The idea with this work is that we can take any material that can be 3D printed and have a simple way to route channels throughout it so we can get sensorization with structure,” said Lillian Chin, a graduate student at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) who co-led the study. “And if you use really complex materials, then you can have motion, perception, and structure all in one.”

Air-filled channels embedded within the structure connect to pressure sensors (pile of chips in the foreground), which actively measure the pressure change of these "fluidic sensors." Image: Courtesy of the research...

MIT researchers are 'upcycling' waste tree forks to offset the environmental impacts of new construction

2022-03-11T12:36:00-05:00

A team of academics working in the Digital Structures research group at MIT's Building Technology Program has combined local aesthetic desires with the recent international push to expend increasing amounts of mass timber elements into new construction.

Associate professor Caitlin Mueller is in charge of a group that spent the last four years strategizing the uses of upcycled tree waste as a base material for load-bearing structures in an effort to reduce the outsized emissions caused by the high-carbon systems.

Working together with the professor, the team set up a five-step design-to-fabrication process that combines the use of ascendant digital technologies to recreate the Y-shaped nodes typical in many architectural drawings. Mueller says the eventual goal is to replace many of the recently-felled trees in her area with custom-made functional structures that “recreate the atmosphere and spatial experience previously provided.”

With help from the nearby city of Somerville’s Urb...

MIT researchers create new material as light as plastic and strong as steel

2022-02-07T12:48:00-05:00

Chemical engineering researchers at MIT have announced the creation of a new material that is “stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.” The material, for which the team has filed two patents, may one day be used as a structural material for buildings and infrastructure.

The new material centers on breakthroughs in the binding of polymers; micro chemical substances composed of molecules that form the building blocks for modern artificial minerals and plastics. Polymers typically bind together in spaghetti-like chains or strings, which can be artificially shaped into three-dimensional objects.

However, MIT’s research has uncovered a means of binding polymers not as linear strings, but as two-dimensional sheets or planes, a feat previously thought impossible after decades of research.

“We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new...

MIT-designed self-driving Roboats make a splash in Amsterdam’s canals

2021-11-18T13:33:00-05:00

After six years of design and research at MIT, a pair of autonomous boats have been launched into the canals of Amsterdam. Roboat, a research project undertaken by the MIT Senseable City Lab and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), seeks to encourage a future where autonomous boats could help the city of Amsterdam move part of its road traffic to the water.

Image © MIT / AMS Institute

From November onwards, the two full-scale prototypes will be used for three use cases: passenger transport, logistics (waste collection), and data collection (surveying water infrastructure and monitoring water quality). The boats will operate with complete autonomy through the use of way-point finding, autonomous docking and undocking, and collision avoidance.

Image © MIT / AMS Institute

“Picture being amid the hustle and bustle on the Amsterdam canals,” explains Ynse Deinema, Roboat Project Lead at AMS Institute. “This urban context involves tight space maneu...

MIT offers free access to 34 major architecture books

2021-04-13T16:31:00-04:00

MIT Press has launched an unprecedented digitization program for architecture and design publications, with 34 classic architecture and urbanism books now freely available on its platform. The “MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies” is dedicated to classic and out-of-print titles, providing open access to the public via the MIT Press Direct digital book platform.

Among the titles now available are Moshe Safdie’s “Beyond Habitat” from 1970, Donald Leslie Johnson’s “Frank Lloyd Wright versus America” from 1994, and Mark Jarzombek’s “On Leon Battista Alberti” from 1990. Other titles explore the works of famous architects such as Palladio, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier.

The collection is in response to years of requests received by MIT Press for e-book versions of historic, out-of-print publications. As many of these books were published before the internet age, digital versions were often impractical to produce due to the complex design and licensing costs. However, fund...

Burning Man plans a permanent, sustainable location, with a design team from MIT leading the vision

2021-03-09T12:45:00-05:00

The Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated with the Burning Man project to develop a design challenge that invites creative proposals for regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-the-grid ranch in the Great Basin.

The competition brief asked for designers, creatives, and inventors to "integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The objective is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project's 2030 sustainability goals, engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design."

From regenerative venues, spaces for habitation to energy infrastructure, the design competition received nearly 200 design proposals. Out of those submissions, ten were selected as top proposals for the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge. "Art and creativity are the connective strings that weave...

Exploring the difference between history and memory in Renaissance architecture

2020-12-08T14:57:00-05:00

ElDante Winston [...] PhD student in MIT’s History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program is keenly interested in how spaces designed for violence retain a memory of violent acts in the present day.

"These are places of violence that, when you go to them now, you just watch people mill around and eat gelato," ElDante Winston, a PhD student in MIT's History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program, says about certain, prominent examples of Renaissance architecture, the subject of his research. "But years ago, someone was hanging right in the center of the piazza, if they weren’t decapitated. And we don’t really think about that, and what that means for the space."

MIT's Master of Science in Real Estate Development program pushes for research-based education and application

2020-11-05T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by MIT Center for Real Estate

The MIT Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) offers an unparalleled education in real estate practice. Our groundbreaking MSRED degree presents a program that is rigorous, concentrated, multidisciplinary and geared toward direct application.

Why earn an MSRED? MIT’s Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) is the most concentrated, science-based graduate degree in real estate available. Launched in 1984 by the MIT Center for Real Estate, the MSRED is the first one-year degree of its kind, fulfilling a need for specialized education beyond the scope of the traditional MBA. The MSRED prepares men and women to compete in the global market with superior qualifications — providing the research-based expertise necessary to solve complex problems in contemporary real estate.

MSRED graduates - #MIT2019 MIT Center for Real Estate. Photo by Lacey Cochran. Courtesy of MIT MSRED

Fast Facts

11-month program wi...

Apply now to MIT's Master of Science in Real Estate Development program

2020-10-05T15:13:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by MIT's MSRED

Why earn an MSRED?

MIT’s Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) is the most concentrated, science-based graduate degree in real estate available. Launched in 1984 by the MIT Center for Real Estate, the MSRED is the first one-year degree of its kind, fulfilling a need for specialized education beyond the scope of the traditional MBA. The MSRED prepares men and women to compete in the global market with superior qualifications — providing the research-based expertise necessary to solve complex problems in contemporary real estate.

Fast Facts

11-month program with a 16-month extended option
Typical class size 25-35 students per year
Fellow Programs and Fellowships available
Selec...

Nicholas de Monchaux will lead MIT's Department of Architecture

2020-02-12T08:00:00-05:00

Architect and educator Nicholas de Monchaux has been selected to lead the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning.

de Monchaux is known globally as a scholar of the intersections between technology, data, and design and has authored several books on related subjects, including Local Code: 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design, and the Nature of Cities fro Princeton Architectural Press and Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo from MIT Press. de Monchaux holds a BA with distinction in Architecture from Yale University as well as an M.Arch degree from Princeton University. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

de Monchaux comes to MIT from the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2006. There, de Monchaux worked as a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and as the Craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media. While at Berkeley, he also was the director of the Berkeley Cente...

Autonomous boats pave way for water cities of the future in Amsterdam

2020-01-09T17:39:00-05:00

The Advanced Metropolitan Solutions Institute of Amsterdam alongside MIT’s Senseable City Lab are ready to launch a full-scale model of what can be an essential infrastructure for water cities around the world.

According to Popup City, the two currently intended applications of the "Roboats" will be introduced in the city of Amsterdam. One will be a moving bridge system that will link the NEMO Science Museum to the historical Dutch Navy dock. The other will address the municipality's current garbage collections system, with the Roboats serving as "floating garbage containers," something the city believes will relieve the present challenges with disposal.

MIT researchers experiment with emission-free cement

2019-10-02T18:42:00-04:00

It’s well known that the production of cement—the world’s leading construction material—is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 8 percent of all such releases...A team of researchers at MIT has come up with a new way of manufacturing the material that could eliminate these emissions altogether, and could even make some other useful products in the process.

The research team is exploring the "idea of using an electrochemical process to replace the current fossil-fuel-dependent system" that relies on coal-fired ovens to convert limestone, clay, and sand to Portland cement. Through the new process, the need to burn coal will be avoided and the emitted carbon dioxide will be captured and "used for applications such as oil recovery or even carbonated beverages and dry ice," MIT suggests.

How much does politics affect architecture? An MIT architectural historian explains

2019-09-13T09:00:00-04:00

In a recent news article from MIT News, architectural historian Timothy Hyde explains why "every building is ultimately a compromise.”

Hyde shares, “It’s a compromise between the intentions of architects, the capacities of builders, economics, politics, the people who use the building, the people who paid for the building. It’s a compromise of many, many inputs.”

An associate professor, author, and former practicing architect, Hyde has explored the relationships between architecture, politics, and society throughout his career. Having written two books on the subject, Hyde has spent his time dissecting the topics of modernism and democracy in Cuba during the 20th century and has also found connections between architecture and power in Britain.

"I really think about myself first as a historian of modernity,” Hyde explains. “Architectural history is the particular vehicle that I use to explore the history of modernity.”

...

Facebook is using Minecraft to train a multi-tasking AI assistant

2019-09-10T15:30:00-04:00

Arthur Szlam and colleagues at Facebook Research have begun work on an AI assistant that can learn from its interactions with humans and then perform a wide range of tasks on request. The more it learns the more it can do. The team has chosen Minecraft, the best-selling 3D sandbox video game, as its medium to develop this new AI.

"Instead of superhuman performance on a single difficult task, we are interested in competency across a large number of simpler tasks, specified by humans," the team said according the the MIT Technology Review. The video game environment allows the AI to interact with countless human users, creating a feedback loop of heightened performance and learning.

The team's hope is to eventually create a self-improving AI that does not need to be "trained" by a human.

SOM's new Moon Village concept brings us one giant step closer to human settlement on the lunar surface

2019-04-12T10:31:00-04:00

In light of a recent breakthrough within the topic of space, the architecture design firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) shares their partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in designing the first "full-time human habitat on the lunar surface." All three teams are working towards the planning, designing, and engineering of the settlement known as "Moon Village." According to SOM design partner Colin Koop, "the project presents a completely new challenge for the field of architectural design. The Moon Village must be able to sustain human life in an otherwise uninhabitable setting. We have to consider problems that no one would think about on Earth, like radiation protection, pressure differentials, and how to provide breathable air.”

With this new venture, ...