Infrastructure is architecture: the overlooked half of the problem – Marina Konstantatou
Space architecture becomes truly real when it stops being a single object and becomes an ecosystem. A long-term presence requires infrastructure. This is also why space architecture is increasingly defined not by iconic “bases,” but by networks of interdependent modules. This lecture will focus on recent Foster + Partners projects in which habitats and infrastructure are co-dependent and designed together as one integrated system.
Marina Konstantatou is an associate partner at Foster + Partners and an industrial fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In her hybrid role spanning industry and academia, she is based at the Specialist Modelling Group (SMG) at F+P and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
As a design systems analyst and SMG research lead, she specialises in form-finding, architectural geometry, and innovation. She is contributing to space architecture, advanced manufacturing, and robotics projects including NASA- and ESA-funded research on lunar and orbital extra-terrestrial infrastructure.
Marina has a background in applied mathematics and physics, after which she specialised in computational design at the Architectural Association, and civil engineering at the University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD from the Department of Engineering on ‘Geometry-based structural analysis and design’.
Bild ©: Marina Konstantatou
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LVA 253.O77 Entwerfen: Space Architecture: Large Orbital Space Structures
Betreuung: Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger & field experts*
* The studio runs alongside a European Space
Agency–funded research project and is supported
by guest lecturers from ESA, Foster + Partners, TU
Munich, David Nixon, and Catapult, and others.
This design studio explores the future of large-scale orbital space structures, moving beyond existing reference solutions toward next-generation space architecture. The central question is: How can large space structures be designed as modular, expandable, adaptable, and sustainable systems, that can be assembled and operated in orbit?
