This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Life on Mars" Architects Lead the Way to Designing for Mars With Virtual Reality."

The virtual Mars City base. Image Courtesy of KieranTimberlake

This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Life on Mars" Architects Lead the Way to Designing for Mars With Virtual Reality."If an architecture firm is lucky, it can hit two birds with one stone on a single project?for example, prioritizing both historic preservation and energy efficiency. But a team at KieranTimberlake, based in Philadelphia, is aiming for four ambitious goals with its pro bono project, the Mars City Facility Ops Challenge.Architects Fátima Olivieri, Efrie Friedlander, and Rolando Lopez teamed up with National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), NASA, and the Total Learning Research Institute (TLRI) to create a virtual working city on Mars?one that might reap multiple rewards.A primary goal for Kerry Joels (TLRI president and former NASA physicist) and KieranTimberlake was to bridge the skills gap for the future STEM workforce?particularly in architecture and facilities management. Another was to use the project as a test for VR creation within KieranTimberlake. Third, Joels and the architects hope to get funding to build a Mars City-like space camp on Earth. And fourth, their deep research and design efforts could one day inform plans for an actual M...