Architects & FirmsSAGA Space Architects ✕

A luminescent white shell, draped over a steel frame, houses a three-story “space habitat,” designed by and for students (ages 6 to 18) at Switzerland’s Institut auf dem Rosenberg in collaboration with SAGA Space Architects. The Rosenberg Space Habitat occupies a footprint of 78 square feet on the campus’s Future Park, a place to study and explore life on earth and beyond. Constructed to fit into a SpaceX rocket, the two-person, wedge-shaped vessel was unveiled on the anniversary of the July 1969 moon landing. According to the Copenhagen-based architects, the 23-foot-high habitat is the world’s tallest 3D-printed polymer structure comprising full-length pieces.

“The development of the habitat was quite a significant educational experience," says SAGA co-founder Sebastian Frederiksen, "but now is where the real education begins.”

Printed in Milan from a recyclable blend of ABS plastic, glass, and UV stabilizer, the six lightweight panels enclose a Star Trek–worthy interior, furnished using space-grade components inspired by earthly nature. Tactile materials like cork and felt imbue the interior with warmth, providing some of the insulation and improving the acoustics. The accommodations include a workshop, living area, and sleeping quarters, each on separate floors, as well as facilities for experiments—and room for Spot, the robotic dog from Boston Dynamics.

“For me, space travel is about idealism, and I think education should be about idealism too,” says Rosenberg president Bernhard Gademann. “We have this unique opportunity to educate leaders of tomorrow. This is the frame of mind we want to leave them with—to think big, to think further.”

Images courtesy Institut auf dem Rosenberg, click to enlarge.