I am going to London to work on this concept. This is the letter that I wrote the principle of Atmos, where I shall work this summer.
This year Shift Boston is sponsoring the competition for the Lunar Capital City. There are catagories of of competition: a design for a fifty-person lunar base, and a design for an entire lunar civilization and culture. So far, alone and with the Orbiter forum, I have crafted an economic development plan for the moon. The moon reflects light to the earth, which is harvested in solar collectors. Day in, day out, these collectors produce energy for the earth, ending dependence on fossil fuels, bringing global harmony, and so on. I call this concept Moon Polis and Star Mirror.
My proposal:
There are two types of environments on the lunar surface: what I call "shadow lakes" deep inside 21km craters, the coldest place in the solar system at 40 kelvin. There is ice here, which is harvested to produce water and oxygen (secondary sector).
The surface is bathed in sun half the time. Without internet I cannot get you the exact tempterature, but on the Lunar surface electro-magnetic energy is abundant. Light can be reflected, to Earth or to Lunar energy collectors, or it can be harvested in a fiber-optic array and piped into the colony. Trees of fiber-optic pineneedles radiate light on the promenade, growing dim with the change in the monthly lunar cycle. I imagine a festival in the public square, designated as the geographic center of the moon, the center for the lunar government, with low-gravity dance parties and appropriate music (we can collaborate with a performance artist collective I know). The sun is the primary sector economic driver.
There is a gradient between these two environements, on a lunar crater where seasonal shadow time increase exponentially as one descends. But the gradient is inperceptable: it is always experienced in the harshest black and white, light and shade, vaccume and radiation.
Imagine the polis (the colony) is located on the lowlands, with mirrors across the plane, from horizon to horizon. Gondolas travel up the rim of the crater and plunge down six kilometers into the shadow lake (crater) to harvest ice.
I want to visualize this. My long-term goal is to get to the point where I can take my visions out of my head and put them onto paper effortlessly. This summer, I want to bring Moon Polis to life. To do this I will need to be pushed and critiqued and worked into the ground like I was in my studio.
In six weeks I could visualize one or both of these projects, perhaps knocking-out the moon-civilization competition, and if there is time left in August work on the floor-plan for the fifty-person base. If I win one of the competitions, there is also street cred for runners-up, but if I win, I earn $1000 to pay for my trip, per catagory.
Steps for the second catagory include:
Sections (Illustrator, Photoshop)
Land use schematic (Illustrator, Photoshop)
Site Plan (Rhino (AutoCAD?), Photoshop)
Energy plan (illustrator, photoshop)
Phasing diagram (illustrator)
3d promenade (Rhino)
Terrain mesh(Google Earth, Vue, Zbrush?)
People (Poser, Photoshop, Maya)
Model of solar mirror collectors (Maya)
Fiberoptic trees(Maya)
Lighting (Maya)
Final Photoshop and Maya renderings
Final board copy (text)
Final board layout and printing
AfterEffects movie.
Flythrough and animations (Maya)
Virtual reality (Unreal engine)
That is two goals a week for over six weeks!
Can I do it? Depends on my mastery of the technology.
Alternatively, I could also work on the base, I would want to do in Revit or Autocad, because those are my weakest programs. Unfortunately, the program for the 50-person base is strict, and as much fun. It is advanced, technical, architectural work. I feel more comfortable in my role as a planner, desiging the entire civilization, at least at first.
But being this is an unpaid studio, I request permission to ask questions, shadow, be formally critiqued at least once a day, and to ask occasional questions of the architects. I might want a workspace where I can stash valuables that I cannot leave at the hostel, such as my computer. I also request that I be allowed to participate in major group discussions and critiques unrelated to the Lunar Mirror. I am not quite sure how things work at an architecture firm, but I am willing to learn and fit-in smoothly and not disrupt the workflow. Do you work late into the night or more 9-5?
Winning this competition brands Atmos as cutting-edge, futuristic, gritty, civic, pragmatic, avant garde, critical, optimistic... It also advances my own brand, my own style, seen throughout my body of work.
And when I am finished, I shall make ice cream for everyone.
