Gene: A Ring-Shaped Space Habitat Built Around Biology

What if the architecture of a space habitat could mirror the very code that makes us alive? Gene proposes exactly that: a ring-shaped orbital station whose structural logic borrows from DNA and ecological systems rather than from the steel-and-panel vocabulary of conventional space stations. The central motif is an annular configuration, a continuous loop that works both as a metaphor for life's continuity and as a practical geometry for orbital stability and centrifugal gravity generation.

Gene was shortlisted in the Origyn competition, which challenged designers to imagine architectures that extend humanity's reach into the cosmos. The project is the work of Shengyu Xia, Haowen Duan, Haibo Sun, and Lining Mei. Their response is a habitat organized around the idea of "sending human genes into space," distributing astronaut accommodations like genetic nodes across a modular ring structure bound together by a helical circulation spine that recalls the double helix of DNA.

A Closed-Loop Biosphere at the Core

Gene's most ambitious claim is that it functions not as a building but as a living system. The ecosystem diagram lays this out plainly: producers (plants), consumers (humans and animals), and decomposers (microorganisms) operate in a closed-loop cycle that recycles oxygen, water, and nutrients. This is terrestrial ecology transplanted into orbit, a self-sustaining biosphere designed for long-term survival in deep space without relying on continuous resupply from Earth.

The diagram traces energy flows between these three biological roles, making visible a metabolic architecture where waste from one system feeds another. It is a compact argument for why space habitation must be conceived ecologically rather than mechanically. The habitat does not merely contain life; it circulates it.

Programming Movement Across Research, Residence, and Recreation

The functional diagram reveals how Gene organizes daily life through color-coded adjacency relationships. Residence zones, scientific research labs, tourist quarters, and entertainment areas are linked by transit routes that manage flow between gravity-enabled outer zones and microgravity inner zones. The motion patterns show a habitat that thinks carefully about how people move, not just where they sleep. A train system connects the major programmatic nodes, treating circulation as infrastructure worthy of its own design logic.

The ring-shaped plan reinforces this zoning. Scientific research, astronaut quarters, tourist accommodations, and vertical traffic shafts each claim distinct sectors of the annulus, color-coded for legibility. The central traffic shaft acts as the vertical circulation core, a tubular helix that is not merely symbolic but functional, modular, and expandable. This spine allows zones to be reconfigured or appended as populations grow or mission objectives evolve, giving the habitat a built-in capacity for architectural scalability.

The Helical Spine and Spherical Nodes

The axonometric diagram pulls Gene apart to show its spatial anatomy. Spherical volumes house astronaut and tourist zones, attached to the helical circulation spine like beads on a twisted strand. Research areas branch off at intervals, each module connectable through the central tubular structure. The outer ring rotates to generate artificial gravity via centrifugal force, enabling walking, exercise, and social activity in a familiar gravitational environment, while the central axis remains in microgravity for weightless experimentation and play.

This modular extension capability is Gene's structural insurance policy. Each ring module clips onto the spine, so additional zones or specialized functions can be added in stages without reworking the whole. The design anticipates that a space habitat is never finished; it grows, adapts, and responds to demands that its creators cannot fully predict. The DNA-like geometry becomes both a structural and organizational principle, encoding flexibility into the habitat's very form.

Why This Project Matters

Gene stands out because it refuses to treat space architecture as a purely engineering problem. By grounding its design in biological metaphors that actually perform, from the closed-loop ecosystem to the modular helix spine, it makes a case for habitats that grow like organisms rather than assemble like machines. The zoning strategy, which balances scientific research, mental health, and leisure, acknowledges that long-duration space living is as much a psychological challenge as a technological one.

For a student team working at the speculative edge of architecture, the project demonstrates real discipline in systems thinking. The integration of centrifugal gravity zones with microgravity cores, the ecological metabolism, and the modular scalability all point toward a habitat designed with life, for life, in a place where life has never existed before. Gene does not just imagine a future in space; it proposes the organizational DNA for building one.

View the Full Project

About the Designers

Designer: Shengyu Xia, Haowen Duan, Haibo Sun, and Lining Mei

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Project credits: Planet Earth's First Space Habitat-gene by Shengyu Xia, Haowen Duan, Haibo Sun, and Lining Mei Origyn (uni.xyz).