Vitro: Designing a Recreational-Cultural Station in Outer Space

Project by Mastoureh Mousavi

Shortlisted Entry of UnIATA '19

New paradigms in space architecture are emerging, prompting architects, designers, and engineers to rethink the core principles of spatial experience. These innovative developments are not speculative fiction—they are grounded in scientific advances and the growing urgency to expand human habitats beyond Earth. With aerospace technology progressing rapidly, the long-imagined leap into building permanent structures in space is becoming not only plausible but essential.

Humanity now stands at the brink of a spatial revolution. As our planet grapples with environmental degradation, climate instability, population growth, and diminishing resources, the need to consider life beyond Earth is more pressing than ever. Space architecture offers a proactive, visionary response—one that allows for the design of livable, interactive, and flexible environments in orbit, on the Moon, or even on Mars. These designs must account not only for technical functionality but also for psychological comfort, sensory experience, and social interaction in isolation.

The project "Designing a Recreational-Cultural Station in the Space Through Studying the Transformation of the Concept of the Archite"Vitro takes this futuristic impulse and channels it into a deeply imaginative yet technically driven design for a recreational-cultural station in space. Through the use of advanced digital modeling, animation software, and experimental material logic, it explores the evolution of architectural forms that respond to movement, mood, and motion in real time. Instead of traditional static volumes, the project proposes spaces that breathe, fluctuate, and transform—where architecture becomes a living organism, tailored to its zero-gravity context.

Section 1: Crazy Colors (Main Bubble Inside)

This primary spatial node acts as a sensory and theatrical chamber, envisioned as a fluid environment constantly adapting to user presence and behavior. Through a dynamic palette of shapes and motions, it creates a captivating, immersive experience for space dwellers. Inspired by concepts of environmental theater and augmented by digital animation, the architecture here is no longer passive—it moves, shifts, and evolves as if it were alive.

Advanced software simulations drive the development of these forms, testing how architecture can exist in states of constant transformation. These behaviors make the bubble not just a static object in orbit, but a responsive environment—one that interprets, reacts, and visualizes internal and external data. This challenges all preconceived notions of permanence and solidity in architectural space.

Section 2: Clastic Space (Main Bubble)

This zone is dedicated to movement, division, and connectivity. Drawing from Greg Lynn’s theories on animated form, the Clastic Space disrupts the “architectural static” by experimenting with viscous, gelatinous materials. The main inspiration comes from slime—a substance chosen for its capacity to stretch, deform, and adapt to pressure, movement, and flow.

In zero gravity, the behavior of such material takes on even more radical dimensions. Metaball simulations visualize how modular pods or capsules might drift, bump, and reorganize dynamically within the space. This bubble acts as a transitional corridor, parsing spatial functions into fluid zones without using rigid partitions. Frame-by-frame analysis highlights the evolution of spatial boundaries as fluid interactions dictate form and space-use.

Section 3: Floric (Musical Bubble)

Perhaps the most experimental of the zones, the Musical Bubble introduces a concept of architecture that is emotionally intelligent. It reads the music, mood, and movements of its occupants and morphs accordingly—using audio-reactive design logic to reshape its surface topology. Architecture becomes performative, kinetic, and expressive.

The capsule at the core of this bubble is sensitive to both sonic frequency and human behavior. The passengers inside directly influence the geometry, color, and mood of the space. The walls pulsate, expand, or ripple in response to changes in tempo or tone. This transforms the space into a symphonic experience—a synthesis of architecture, emotion, and rhythm, allowing users to co-create their environment in a way no terrestrial space could offer.

Section 4: Anti Nausea (Nausia Bubble)

Addressing the physiological challenges of long-duration space travel, the Nausia Bubble acts as a counterbalance to motion sickness. It is designed around principles of swarm intelligence and self-organization, offering an adaptive framework for health and well-being. The architecture here does not impose control—it collaborates with the body.

Through distributed micro-adjustments in spatial form and airflow, the environment responds to movement, heart rate, and balance signals. Swarms of mini capsules track and offset destabilizing forces, creating a calmer, more harmonious experience. These intelligent bubbles also offer recreational therapy spaces, including fitness pods and mental wellness modules, to ensure physical and emotional stability during prolonged stays in orbit.

Tables of capsule morphologies, bubble behavior, and flow simulations offer detailed insights into how architectural logic merges with biological needs in microgravity conditions.

With Vitro, Mastoureh Mousavi redefines the purpose, function, and language of architecture. This ambitious project doesn’t merely adapt Earth-based principles to space—it reinvents them for a future where boundaries dissolve, structures respond, and environments become expressive entities.

As a shortlisted entry in the UnIATA '19 competition, Vitro proves itself to be a visionary prototype for the future of space architecture. It exemplifies how digital design tools, scientific reasoning, and imaginative speculation can come together to produce architecture that is sensitive, adaptive, and deeply human—even beyond the planet we call home.