Nine lunar habitat proposals win in Moontopia competition

Last year, hundreds of people from across the globe took on Eleven Magazine's 2016 lunar challenge, “Moontopia”. As the first of Eleven's space-architecture competition series, Moontopia tasked participants with designing — you guessed it — a Moontopia, a self-sufficient lunar colony designed for living, working, and researching, and with room for a little space tourism, of course.

By the end of the competition, the jury — which comprised of space-architects, academics, and NASA designers — gave awards to nine entries. That included one winner, a runner-up, a People's Choice Award, and six Honorable Mentions.

Check out the top-winning entries below. 

WINNER: “Lunar Test Lab” by Monika Lipinska, Laura Nadine Olivier, Inci Lize Ogun | Poland / Germany / Italy-Turkey

Project excerpt: “Testlab is the future of lunar living and space exploration. The concept of the lunar Testlab is simple – gradually populate the moon over time. This will happen in the space of several years, beginning with a simple, singular settlement at its commencement that will be solely inhabited by a set number of astronauts. As the settlement begins to evolve and grow over time, more people will be able to inhabit the settlement. As the Testlab becomes autonomous and more established, ordinary people, like you and me, will be able to travel to the moon and participate in the growth and flourishing of the Testlab. They will be able to experiment with growing fruitful plants in space, experiment with 3D and 4D printing and will experience what it means to live in what was thought to be an inhumane environment. The idea is that professional astronauts will work hand-in-hand together with people that are passionate about outer space and strive to find new and fascinating ways of living, in a world that is becoming ever more threatening to live in.”

RUNNER UP: “MOMENTUM VIRIUM in L1” by Sergio Bianchi, Jonghak Kim, Simone Fracasso, Alejandro Jorge, Velazco Ramirez | Italy / South Korea / Peru

Project excerpt: “The moon has abundant resources on the moon could be investigated and exploited. It is nonetheless important that the moon itself has always had a significant meaning to us, and therefore its original state must be highly respected and preserved as much as possible. Creating a livable space on the surface of the moon would require substantial amount of drastic changes which are time consuming, inefficient and therefore irrational. It is therefore we propose a space station not built directly on the surface but orbiting around the moon with a cable linked to the surface, a station that makes possible exploitation and investigation of the moon resources for mankind without changing its original state – MOMENTUM VIRIUM.”

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD: “Modulpia” by Alessandro Giorgi, Cai Feng, Siyuan Pan, Esteban Analuiza | Italy / China / Ecuador

Project excerpt: “Our proposal is based on a simple, economical and sustainable system of settlement on the moon. We have designed a unique form which, according to a so-called aggregation system Weair-Phelan structure, gives shape to an organic landscape which will accommodate future residents. The Weaire-Phelan foam consists of dodecahedrons wonky with pentagonal faces and tetradecahedrons with two hexagonal and 12 pentagonal faces. The structure based on this unique geometry would be highly repetitive and constructible while it looks very organic and random. This system allows us to build a modular system, simple but at the same time functional with the minimum necessary, ease of construction and assembly ensuring all comforts. Once we built the module, it will be a “kids game” put it in its position and fasten it to the other modules.”

Don't forget to check out the Honorable Mentions in the gallery below! You can find the winning proposals in full here.

All images courtesy of Eleven Magazine.