all images © Alberto Villanueva Galindo 

Watch MARS Utopia project-interview with Villanueva here (in spanish)

Spanish architect Alberto Villanueva, founder and director of IDEA Architecture Office, proposed a real life on Mars using all the technology on space. Titled 'MARS Utopia', the project derives from the problem of overpopulation that investigates how the new technologies and architecture can generate proper conditions in the most extreme environments. Galindo's proposal started as a thesis project for a master in Environment Design, University of Ravensbourne and then turned into a reality test to insert new inhabitings on the planet. The project explores the large scale architecture implications of applying radical water weather technologies to the task of landscape remediation, creating the atmosphere that we need to generate life. 

Alberto Villanueva is a lecturer in Ravensbourne, and he has been interested in the relations between movies and architecture. ''Movies like 'Le voyage dans la lune' (Mèliés) woke up on me an interest in how to build and use all the technology on space'' said Villanueva. 

As related to the essence of the project, ''I didn't know what I wanted to do. As an architect I am worried about the overpopulation issue. I was studying how the most populated cities around the world are growing non-stop (except Seoul where I was doing a project). At the same time I realized that at least 30% of territories are in extreme environments and I wanted to understand how with my responsibility as an architect I could think in new ways to build in this areas'' told Galindo WAC. 

''My competitive  way to face a project made me think about what would be the hardest scene to consider this project. And because we have discovered that Mars holds water under the surface (after NASA research), that became my goal for this project. But always having on mind how to apply that on Earth'' Villanueva added.

Villanueva's proposal has been tackled like a project in real life. Villanueva and his team have done a scientific and architectural research and tests. The first point was to check what other professionals were doing and the resources that the spatial agencies have. The way to arrive to Mars, the 3D printers technology, the growing bacteria and fungus... all have been tested.

''After studying the morphology, topography and conditions of the planet, I established a system selecting different craters on Hellas Planitia (and other regions) where I realized that there was frozen water below the surface'' Villanueva explained. 

The project uses the systems already experienced by NASA will be able to send 3D printers that obtaining materials own land on the planet (basalt, regolith, ferrous elements) -usually working with elements of volcanic nature of the planet- will build a first metal slender structure whose mission is collecting energy from electromagnetic fields generated in those areas to melt ice. Thus providing a system of water-filled craters, lakes.

The second phase will be to build towers that will have a mixture with an epoxy resin (as a glue) and various types of fungi and bacteria. In this case the fungus mycelium tested by different professional 3D printing. The mycelium (that withstands extreme conditions) will draw water lake itself to grow and will have the dual role of organic growth and generate the tower and, converting the high CO2 content of the atmosphere in O2 (I know is not the usual behavior, but through a modification we are able to get that). With that we succeed after two months accumulate enough oxygen to form and give consistency to the small atmospheric layer of the planet. The conditions of the planet begin to change, and after about two years we will be able to breathe on the Martian surface.

In addition, the project is added to use bacteria that generate light. The bio-luminescence is a point with which Villanueva wanted to have fun for a sustainable lighting solution. Therefore you will see an image of the tower from the inside with a bright green.  Alberto Villanueva as an architect, thinks about the responsibility we have built work and its future. In this case the building as an organic element fade after about five years, deleting any footprint on the planet and maintaining a living atmosphere. It will be the right time to create a new architecture to colonize time.

Among Villanueva's proposals in the thesis, he explains how its composition, Tenerife (Canary Islands, where I bornt), Hawaii or Austalia would be a good place to experiment with prototypes.

> via IDEA Architecture Office