LUNAR

This studio examines architecture for diplomacy with a focus on speculative consulate facilities as a result of the Moon’s colonisation. New global conditions have emerged as the result of geopolitical tensions, post pandemic recovery and ever increasing cyber benefits (and threats), the need for national representation has shifted from fortress style embassies to welcoming, inspiring civic spaces that positively portray the nation’s narrative... but what is this narrative? How can architecture reflect the diversity of a nation and speak for all?

More-than-human theoretical positioning informs a new type of consulate building that reimagines who and how it represents. By repositioning our tendency toward human-centeredness this architecture becomes a host structure to secure, promote and welcome all living creatures. Cinematic, scenographic and interdisciplinary techniques create an architecture that is not just bricks and mortar but one that is an agent - provocative, experiential, living, adapting, supportive for all kinds.

The studio anticipates a hypothetical rapid and large scale colonisation of The Moon, imagining multiple nations and corporations vying to claim moon surface territory for both habitation and resource extraction. Projects propose and develop both Moon and Earth based facilities to support cultural and economic diplomacy, not dissimilar to the scale and use of current day embassy and expo architecture.

Studio Leaders: Matthew Bird

Image: ‘The Portal’ by Tien Kim Vu