Global architecture practice Foster + Partners has released plans for a lunar habitation project capable of hosting up to four people, constructed using 3D printing. Shortly after the announcement that Universe Architecture is planning to construct the world’s first 3D printed house, Foster + Partners released a statement about their plans to build a residential structure on the moon using a similar technique.

It is said that the structure will offer protection from meteorites, gamma radiation and high temperature fluctuations, and may be built using regolith, or lunar soil. Foster + Partners have been working on the project for several years as part of a collaborative group with Italian space engineering firm Alta SpA, Pisa-based engineering university Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, and Monolite UK which supplied the D-Shape printer for a 1.5 tonne mock-up which has already been tested.

Xavier De Kestelier, Partner, Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group details: “As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials - our lunar habitation follows a similar logic. It has been a fascinating and unique design process, which has been driven by the possibilities inherent in the material. We look forward to working with ESA and our consortium partners on future research projects.”