Designing in Microgravity

The paper explores how designers can operate within a highly complex sector such as Space by adopting extreme design strategies. In this context, designers take on an advanced role, open to collaborative in-novation models, and can accelerate their learning processes through the integration of methodological and digital tools. The aim is to put creativity at the service of a field characterised by strong regulatory constraints, especially in the design phase, while promoting the cross-fertilisation of highly specialised technical knowledge and design-dri-ven practices to explore new design solutions. The result of this research, developed as part of the “Beyond the Space Life” and conducted by the Department of Architecture of the Univer-sity of Bologna in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space Italia, is the Space Digital Living Lab: a physical-digital space designed to facilitate both the entry of future designers into the Space sector and to enhance synergies between experts in the field and other entities/professionals outside this field, increasing innovative capability and sustainability. Here we take a closer look at one of the four tools that make up the mo-del: the Design Innovation Research-Action Lab, its most tangible di-mension, where interdisciplinary teams iterate possible concepts for future product systems for space habitats in rapid cycles of exploration, prototyping and reflection.