As humanity prepares for long-term lunar habitation, the design of extraterrestrial habitats must evolve beyond functional efficiency to prioritize human well-being. The bulk of existing space architecture research focuses on optimization and safety, resulting in rigid, standardized environments that overlook consideration for psychosocial needs. This research explores how user-defined spaces based on human-centric design principles can create a heterogeneous lunar habitat that balances social interaction and private boundaries, to foster the psychosocial well-being of long-term living in an isolated environment.

The project departs from examining human behaviour living in an isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environment, drawing insights from analogue missions, space station precedents, lunar surface expeditions, and related experiences – through which one of the leading causes of frustration is found: lack of variation in privacy. By extrapolating the research into personas and activity-based design, this project set design parameters to support social integration while preserving personal space. A key objective is to create distinct transitions between functional spaces, allowing different social interactions to occur, thereby catering to the inhabitants’ personal preferences and social dynamics.

The research employs computational design methods to explore possible spatial configurations, integrating In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and component-based construction for scalability and adaptability. A bottom-up design approach ensures that user needs, activities, and interactions drive spatial organization, with activity-based design shaping program distribution and form optimization. The project also speculates on future construction methods, combining robotic assembly and mass customization for efficient yet personalized environments.

By shifting the focus from purely functional to humanized lunar habitation, this research contributes a novel architectural approach that enhances astronaut well-being. The findings offer valuable insights not only for lunar bases but also for terrestrial architecture in extreme environments, redefining how spatial design can support interaction and individuality within isolated habitats.

The paper investigates the social production of space in Taman Anggrek Mall, a luxury mixed-use superblock built in 1996 in Jakarta, Indonesia, through social media narratives. Once the largest mall and home to the first ice rink in Southeast Asia, Taman Anggrek Mall was designed to embody modernity and the consumerist middle-class of 1990s postcolonial Indonesia and is a form of land commodification that is ever-present in urban Jakarta – a city flourishing under the culture of consumerism. As we are moving forward in digitalization, social media opens another dimension in the dynamic aspect of collective memory formation. In our content-starved society, the spatial dimension of social media archives introduces new pathways to mnemonic practices in reconstructing the memory of places, and in turn, shaping our perception of these places in lieu to the collective memory. This study aims to understand the relationship between the collective memory production through social media and its affect to our spatial perception in the lived space, through the context of Taman Anggrek Mall.