The Most Complex Piece of Architecture Created by Mankind

8 June 2010 - 7:00am

340KM above your head, the first human dwelling beyond Earth's surface has just been completed. Last week, a space shuttle launched on May 14 added the final building block to the $125 billion International Space Station.

"It makes no sense to judge costs by square meter as there are no floors in weightlessness," but at a cost of $144 million per cubic meter of inhabitable volume, it is unlikely to be used as a model for the latest downtown duplex development.

David Nixon, one of the architects involved in the station's construction, describes how the "willingness of many nations - and former enemies - to work together in a commonwealth of learning" has allowed human space exploration to establish it's first inhabitable base in space. He believes this fantastical new building represents a pinnacle of human craftsmanship.

Source: Building Design, June 4, 2010
Bookmark and Share
"This ends up being, to be sure, a second best alternative, but it's better than the third best alternative, which is to do nothing." -- Jerold Kayden