Book Review: How to Build a Space Station by Jonathan Morrison

This book, by The Times' former Architecture Correspondent, stands in direct opposition to A City on Mars. Whereas that book presented a (perhaps too) sceptical look at the realities of living on other planets, Jonathan Morrison's book goes (perhaps too far) in the opposite direction.

How to Build a Space Station is a beautiful examination of just how important architecture will be to our colonisation of other worlds. Not just in terms of physical safety - but psychological safety as well. It is a direct and forceful rebuttal to those who say it cannot be done.

It is, in my opinion, just a touch too credulous about some of the ludicrous claims from the hype merchants. I want to believe that Martian igloos can be conjured out of the ice and that Musk's rockets will deliver a steady stream of supplies to distant worlds. But the evidence presented is rather thin. The book works best when it focuses on what architecture can bring to the table when it comes to designing the future.

In short, a spacecraft is not just a machine; it is also a home, an office, a refuge. If people are asked to go to the most remote environments, to live in spaces scarcely larger than a few rooms, and to perform work of immense complexity and risk, then comfort, efficiency and ergonomics are not just luxuries.

Space has to be worth living in. Putting people into a tin-can with no windows, blank walls, and an infernal background hum will drive them mad. All this is backed up with extensive descriptions of the engineering challenges of polar research bases, spaceports, and previous craft.

Despite being rightly scathing about Wernher von Braun's involvement in atrocities and his eventual political rehabilitation - he is somewhat more muted in his criticism of Messrs Musk & Bezos. There's a lot of praise for celebrity architects and designers - without any real examination of whether their designs are practical rather than just award fodder.

Similarly, the book takes on trust that autonomous robots can ingest extraterrestrial soil, process it, and 3D print structures from it all while in a hostile environment. The fact that we don't have swarms of drones prefabbing houses in the relatively benign atmosphere of our planet should be evidence that maybe these claims aren't quite matched with reality.

Finally, the "why?" question. A City on Mars points out that the cost of mining gold from asteroids would be more profitably spent improving mining technology here on Earth. How to Build a Space Station takes a different approach; it'll improve things here:

Space architecture is not just escapism, a thrilling sci-­fi fantasy – it is a forge for creating the tools we need at home. These include but are not limited to circular systems, low-­energy fabrication, modular construction and buildings that take psychology seriously.

I have a lot of sympathy for that. Except… the Internation Space Station has shown us how to endlessly recycle water relatively cheaply. Yet every modern building on Earth pays only lip-service to reusing grey-water. 3D printing is amazing, but the number of structures built using autonomous robots extruding concrete is approximately zero.

We have the technology - but we don't seem to be interested in using it.

The book is mostly well illustrated - with some gorgeous drawings of actual craft and possible future inventions. Sadly no photos, maps, or anything to help illuminate some of the other challenges faced by living and working in space.

This book is endlessly fascinating and bang up to date, with lots of talk of events that happened in 2025. The way it brings together the sciences of engineering and psychology is marvellous. But, as much as I'd like to believe in a Martian habitat built by robot trebuchets flinging microwave sintered tetrapods into each other, I just don't find it convincing.

I really hope I'm wrong.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the review copy - the book is available to buy now.