Rhizo: A Martian Architecture Movement

Rhizo is an underground Martian city structured around a central Landing Tower that bridges the surface and the underground, surrounded by four Residential Towers. Grounded in NASA research and ongoing missions, every design choice serves a critical survival function. The habitat's structural curved shape is engineered to endure extreme internal-external pressure differentials. To mitigate the harsh Martian environment, Rhizo integrates a radiation shielding fungi wall, powered by a closed-loop life support ecosystem that manages air, water, energy, and vertical greenhouses.

Technical Description

US Letter-size printed volume on 100lb Gloss Digital C2S Paper, featuring a modular overlay system of Samsill Clear Transparency Film. Complex architectural components are deconstructed into individual layers, allowing readers to isolate specific systems or overlay them to synthesize the fully integrated architecture. The first edition is hand-bound in a Moleskine-style hardcase format, featuring a meticulously crafted handmade cover. Layout and typesetting were executed in Adobe InDesign, while the architectural assets were modeled in Blender and rendered using UE 5.4.

Architecture on Mars? Why?

Bound by borders and fractured by geopolitics, our current reality has lost its unity. We look back at the 1969 moon landing not just as a technological achievement, but as the last time humanity moved together as one. Mars offers us something planet Earth currently cannot: a clean slate. Named after the Greek word for "root," Rhizo is an architectural framework designed for this new beginning. It is a speculative vision a sanctuary beneath the Martian soil where humanity can finally transcend its divides, take root, and grow together into the cosmos.