Photo by Arkku, courtesy Flickr

Norman Foster I.M. Pei Goes Gold Five Pritzker Winners to Help Design French Arts Center Japan Art Association Honors Zaha Hadid Shortlist Announced for World Building of the Year British Museum Partners With Abu Dhabi on National Museum Foster to Re-Embark on West Kowloon Project Editor’s Letter

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

Foster + Partners is joining a European consortium that will study adapting materials found in space for building purposes, using data from the original Apollo moon landing, as well as new information gathered by robot vehicles on Mars. One of the goals is to build permanent bases on the moon. The project is part of the European Space Agency’s Aurora program.

This is not Foster + Partners’s first venture into outer space-related architecture, however. The firm is designing the world's first private spaceport for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public from its location in New Mexico. The first launch is set for 2011.

Read more at the London Guardian.