055

Authors:

 DeSeabra, Richard Americus

Title:

 TRANQUILITY & ALTO CANAVERAL A TWIN-CITIES LUNAR PROJECT AND 5 GUIDELINES FOR LUNAR CONSTRUCTION

Keywords:

 architecture, physics, life forms

Abstract:

 The Twin-Cities Lunar Project is a proposal for the moon's first two
cities. The first cities' designs follows five principles that I believe
should be implemented no matter what design were to be approved for a lunar
city.

I call these principles the 5 Guidelines for Lunar Construction:

1. Cities should be built on a steep hill or crater ridge as to offer
spectacular views of the moonscape and the earth from all angles within the
cities.

2. Cities should be built in pairs and should be visible to each other in
the distance as to give inhabitants a sense of "a place to go."

3. Circulation of construction vehicles should be carefully anticipated and
planned to lie exactly where roads will be constructed. If not, track marks
will remain and visually pollute the moon surface forever.

4. The construction site at the base of the hill or crater must be
transformed into land art as to erase truck tracks.

5. Streets, forests, plazas will be named after the Apollo mission
astronauts, Block 1 and Challenger victims, and other important
contributors to the space program including visionaries throughout history.

In addition to the 5 Guidelines for Lunar Construction, various sorts of
views or vistas are explored in the cities' architecture:

The Importance of Views:

The importance of being able to have views of the outside cannot be
underestimated. For a city who's population will probably be mostly
transitory, it is the views that people are going to take back home with
them. These views and perspectives are going to be awe-inspiring and
hopefully alleviate inhabitants in times of homesickness and severe
"saudade".

There are 4 types of visual perspectives that are explored in the cities of
Tranquility and Alto Canaveral:

1: A sense of "a way out"
The spaceport should be visible in the distance. At times of homesickness
(or even at all times) it might be subconsciously nice to know that there
is a way off the moon. Seeing space ships come and go in the distance once
or twice a day may act upon the subconscious in this way.

2: A sense of "a place to go"
The twin city, should be visible in the distance. This view should give
inhabitants a sense of a place to go; somewhere else to go if you want to
just "get out of town". This other city is Alto Canaveral and it also
follows the 5 Guidelines of Lunar Construction indicated earlier and should
be located some 10 kilometers away: a distance at which it's buildings are
small but recognizable from Tranquility . This city, however, will be
warmer than Tranquility and used to grow tropical fruit and other foods
that require a warmer climate. Sketches for this city already exist and
will be included in the next version of this project.

3: A sense of the "unspoiled"
Tranquility should have views of unspoiled moon scape. It is important
that, from the downtown area, at least a 110 degree angle view will be of
unspoiled land: Land that has no roads, cities, factories or blinking
lights in the distance... just moon.

4: A sense of "city-self"
Tranquility will offer views of the city itself. This is why "the hook"
around the Zen Lake and a few observation decks were developed; so that
inhabitants can go to a distant edge of Tranquility and look back at their
own city. This is also why office buildings and hotels are built on high
stilts. People at work in office buildings or visiting in hotels will
experience a feeling of being "downtown" or having the "room with a view".
Upon first glance, the office buildings may look as if they would topple
over because of their daring elongated designs. But since there is much
less gravity on the moon and no wind, building designs can be far more
audacious.
DeSeabra, Richard Americus. deseabra@dds.nl . Independant.