'new home' habitat proposes an easy-to-construct, comfortable living solution on mars

‘new home’ is a proposal for a martian habitat, designed by marek podlaha and antónia pohanková, that uses a prefabricated spaceship, transported from earth, as the center of the home. a spaceship would land on the surface of mars, while a transparent plastic-like ETFE membrane would inflate to create living spaces. the construction concept consists of several stages, which will minimize the need for large machinery, but allow for sufficient living space.

exterior visualization on mars’ surface of the complete ‘new house’ structure

‘within this concept, we combine both prefabrication of self-deployable structure and utilization of local materials to minimize the need for earth-bound material and machinery,’ antónia pohanková explains. a manned mission to mars will pose a significant architectural challenge. due to the mission’s logistics, the crew would be required to stay on the planet for a lengthy 1.5 years. 

‘new house’ is prefabricated on earth so no heavy machinery is needed

the designers believe that the mission will only be successful if the design for the home contains space where the crew can not only work, but also relax and enjoy themselves — protected from the hostile environment of mar’s atmosphere. ‘we believe that good architectural design can positively affect the mental state of the users. this particular theme of architecture will be crucial for such a mission as the future habitat will be the only thing separating the crew from certain death. they will have to put all their trust in the habitat and fully rely on it,’ marek podlaha explains.

the plastic-like ETFE membrane will inflate and largely extend the living spaces

a central six-story structure is prefabricated on earth which holds all the necessary life support systems, installations, and folded structures that will extend the habitat. once completed, the structure is launched and takes six-month to journey to mars. after landing, robots collect and compact the local ground to create a foundation for the building, the membrane envelope is wrapped around the central structure, and inflated with compressed martian air. the structure even contains three balconies, which will deploy from within the central structure and unfold around it. to make the space livable, oxygen is extracted from the local gases and water is extracted from ice embedded in the ground.

exterior view showing rocket and self-deployable structure

antónia pohanková and marek podlaha propose also growing bamboo inside the habitat. this material could not be only used for additional construction, but also to craft furniture and tools, provide shade in the transparent envelope, and serve as a food source. this could all be achieved without the need to transport any additional materials from earth. the designers further explains the choice of bamboo, ‘not only is bamboo an ingenious material with very long tradition and craftsmanship, but it is also the ideal plant to grow in these conditions. by identifying as grass, it is botanically very simple and exhibits very low requirements on the environment: it is able to withstand extreme temperature fluctuations and does not require pollinating to reproduce. moreover, it is the fastest growing plant which makes it possible to be utilized for its purposes within months.’

aerial view of the structure

section through the habitat

balcony on first floor

ground floor

observatory on the highest floor

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edited by: lindsay duddy | designboom