Moon Station

Overpopulation, resource depletion, ecosystem collapse: after due consideration, from a planet that is at breaking point, the ultimate unexplored horizon, the only untouched frontier seems outer space. 

Space is a mysterious and mysteriously violent place. It is a place of abyssal distances and magnitudes such as to go beyond the most refined comprehension. Space is the place where human science still falters getting excited at the slightest step forward in the knowledge of a void as ancient as time full of mysteries and concealed secrets.  

In that dark and unknown abyss, the safest shelter, the closest haven is inevitably the Moon.

50 years after the last human moon landing, a renewed interest in space has driven a group of public and private international partners to go back to our silent satellite. Through the Artemis program, in November 2022 the first no-crew mission was launched.

Humans are expected to walk on the moon again by 2025. After that, the Moon will become the most important scientific base of humankind. In all likelihood, the most significant scientific discoveries of the coming decades will be made there.  

In this remarkable scenario, YAC is proud to present Moon Station in collaboration with the Topical Team on Planetary Caves of the European Space Agency. This competition aims to design the first moon research base. 

Moon Station invites architects to take part in a unique and revolutionary challenge. A visionary challenge which is rooted in the reality of future space travels, of a man that is no longer content with Earth’s experiences and that is now able to venture into places that seemed impossible to reach until the last century.   

Moon Station requires the design of a first-time architecture. It will be an iconic place that is the symbol of the most futuristic exploration of humankind. Here, the most daring people of the planet will enjoy silver deserts and skies that have never been seen before. They will walk amid silent craters to see the light-blue globe of their distant planet in a black horizon day and night.   

This architecture will go down in history and become a legend as the Pillars of Hercules, Apollo 11 and any other human object aiming to trace the new frontier of human exploration: the new frontier of a renewed humankind, of a humanity which has already become “multiplanetary”.   

YAC and ESA’s Topical Team thank all architects who will take up this challenge.