Description
bstract:As plans for sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars become increasingly concrete, most design attention has focused on engineering systems: life support, propulsion, and structural integrity. Far less attention has been paid to how these habitats will actually work as spaces—how people will navigate them, how they will grow, and how they will fail.
Building on architectural theories from Space Syntax, which applies graph theory to buildings and urban environments, this work considers how spatial configuration shapes usability. Using measures such as intelligibility, architects can estimate how confusing or maze-like a building or urban layout may be. As extraterrestrial bases expand from a small number of modules to settlements supporting hundreds, thousands, or even millions of inhabitants, designers face a growing set of constraints. Maximising flexibility and the ability to respond to local growth must be balanced against the need to keep the habitat navigable. Unlike Earth-bound settlements, these trade-offs must also be weighed against the risks of vulnerability in the event of habitat depressurisation.
In this talk, I explore the spatial configuration and architectural usability of modular extraterrestrial settlements, introducing a framework for evaluating habitat layouts using two key spatial properties: intelligibility and vulnerability. Using analytical methods and simulations, I examine both small habitat clusters and larger, accretive settlements.
I present a new vulnerability metric based on spatial types and configurational redundancy, allowing us to quantify how the failure of individual modules can fragment an entire habitat system. The results support five core hypotheses, including a fundamental tension between spatial intelligibility and structural resilience as modular settlements scale, and demonstrate that Space Syntax concepts transfer meaningfully to non-terrestrial environments.
I argue that unplanned modular growth leads to declining usability and increasing fragility, and that deliberate spatial planning is essential if extraterrestrial settlements are to remain navigable, resilient, and human-centred at larger scales. The talk concludes by outlining how spatial analysis can inform future habitat design before these environments are built—when intervention is still possible.
| Period | 12 Feb 2026 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Durham University, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | National |