This fall, Arizona State University will welcome a new class of grad students to a brand-new program with a distinctly futuristic name: space architecture. It’s led by professor Elena Rocchi. As Rocchi recently told The Show: In her mind, the future is already here.
Full conversation
ELENA ROCCHI: We don't have just to reinvent architecture, we need to reinvent shelter in connection with the new society that we'll establish. The history of architecture depends a lot on the way we have been gathering.
And, we plan to be on the moon in 2030 — if not earlier.
SAM DINGMAN: Wow
ROCCHI: But yeah, exactly. And, each individual student will carry on a personal research. It might involve the construction of an emergency room. It might involve the design of a space suit. It might involve the design of how robots can build a future hotel.
One of the students that applied to the program is interested in disabilities in space. We opened this master's because we are expecting the students actually to pose questions to us.
DINGMAN: Boy, it's so interesting though. I mean, this idea that you're having to build for a speculative future that once seemed so far fetched, but now, as you're saying, it may be within the realm of the next five years or so. One of the things I find fascinating about this is I was looking at the qualifications to be an astronaut, which are very intense. You have to have a master's degree in a STEM field. You have to have three years of related professional experience. You have to complete what is known to be a very, very rigorous physical exam.
Obviously, if long-term life on the moon is going to be viable, we're not going to be able to hold everybody to that standard. How much is human frailty something that you're taking into account as you think about talking to your students about this?
ROCCHI: It is very difficult, your question, because I have a different point of view.
So, it doesn't mean that the students are going to be up there, but someone down here needs to avoid the mistakes that we did when we actually went out our own continent and conquered. Someone needs to put humanity at the center of this conversation.
So how do we profess religion when we are an international space station? What are the spaces where we can feel safe? What are the ways that we can reinvent a new society? But how will we respect what we encounter and avoid the many mistakes that we have done in the past?
We are not colonizing anything. We are not going there to colonize. We are going there to actually find some resources that will help us to continue to be humans.
DINGMAN: That makes a lot of sense and it seems really — revolutionary is the word that's coming to mind. I mean, there's this way in which — and tell me if you think I'm going too far with this or being too grandiose, but — there is a chance to build a human utopia, in a way, because life there will be starting from scratch, in a way.
ROCCHI: Exactly. I'm always thinking that this master's is the opportunity to bridge the gap between theory and practical application.
As a faculty of architecture that started to engage with the interplanetary initiative, I noticed that architects, we didn't take part of the conversation because these initiatives are not necessarily focusing on sheltering the human body, but more about how robots are going to be launched and then start to create a new material that can probably be used for creating the future bricks and eventually these robots can start 3D printing a shelter that will protect her from radiation and then eventually we can land.
But, what is the role of the humans when they are placed at the center of all this conversation? So —
DINGMAN: Right, right, because I can imagine there are ways that robots would be more resilient than humans and also ways in which they would be less resilient than humans.
ROCCHI: No, absolutely. But they're going to — in any case — they're going to be manipulated by humans. And so, that input for me is fundamental. That's why I think it's important that humans are actually there at the center of this conversation, and, architects, industrial designers, interior designers, artists, we can gather in this program and start to actually create a kind of interface for a conversation, a common conversation starting to happen.
The future for me is to formulate the right questions. So, I hope that the master's of science in design of space architecture and extreme environments can contribute to formulate better questions. Remember that if you read our webpage, it starts by saying that everything we do in space is for the Earth.
DINGMAN: That's really interesting. That's really interesting. So, if I'm hearing you right, the foundational philosophy of this program is not the idea that life in space will one day replace life on Earth, but rather that the two will be in conversation with each other.
ROCCHI: Absolutely. We always thought about going beyond the cradle — and I'm speaking of the cradle as of the earth.
Having a distance, having a perspective, makes you think better of the things you have. I'm a foreigner, I'm an Italian architect that traveled to Barcelona and now it's 11 years and I'm in Arizona. I have always the same ideas, but because of the place I'm having them is different, made me understand the values of my ideas.
So for us, exploring and investigating and going on the moon is all in gaining reflection on what we are doing on Earth. All the time, I think what is very interesting of this master's is the constant dialogue between the cradle and beyond the cradle, if it makes sense.
DINGMAN: It does make sense. Thank you, Dr. Elena Rocchi, head of the space architecture and extreme environments program at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. Really appreciate you sharing these big ideas with us.
ROCCHI: Thank you, Sam. Have a wonderful day.
