Danish architecture firm SAGA has designed a prototype for a moon-friendly habitat with an origami-inspired design. It’s a lightweight and strong structure that can unfold and expand up to 750 times its original size. Before actually launching the structure to the moon, the danish duo visited northern greenland to trial this project dubbed ‘lunark’ and gather important data about its performance. for two months, the team tested the structure, themselves, and technologies for future moon missions while enduring -30°C, hurricane winds, and hungry polar bearsthe main principle behind ‘lunark’ is its expanding volume, as the structure expands 750% after transport, while testing it was a great success as it was easy to unfold, and strong enough to withstand the extreme environment. ‘the habitat worked beyond all expectations,’ adds sebastian aristotelis. ‘the unfolding was possible by just two people and no heavy machinery – and in the extreme cold of the arctic. furthermore, the interior design and spatial organization worked well. we are not trained professional astronauts, our tolerance is much lower. so we needed a much more pleasant living environment. we wanted to create a home, not a survival machine – and the habitat really ended up feeling like home.’SAGA moon habitathaving lived for months in conditions that resemble those in outer space, the two young architects collected a tremendous amount of data that they will now analyze with a focus on human well-being and psychology. ‘the future looks great, our design worked better than expected,’ sebastian aristotelis concludes. ‘that puts us on a solid trajectory to build in outer space. now we are maturing our studio, growing our team, and preparing for a contract with one of the space agencies.