DESIGN INTO EXTREMES: EXTENDED LEARNING

Abstract

Unprecedented climate emergencies are part of everyday conversations and experiences. As students seek how to design for these challenges, some design educators are providing learning grounded in what it means to live in extreme environments. As Space Architects, the authors design suitable living conditions and life support systems for unfamiliar, remote settings. The challenge is inaccessibility to end users, their latent needs, and real-time conditions. This case study describes a student team project
to design/build a habitat (Canada) for a client (Europe) and a crew of analogue astronauts who would deploy and use the habitat during an *analogue mission in a lava tube (Iceland) (*situation
created/selected for its similarities to space). Design studios support students to work through a process to meet the learning objectives. Project outcomes for the curriculum presented, are functioning full-scale prototypes. However, for this case study, the process was robust but not fully functional. Extreme contexts often lead to spectacular concepts, presented as 3D-modeled concepts that never reach a built state let alone usability testing and deployment in an extreme setting. The student team’s technical concepts informed a final full-scale prototype that was deployed in a lava tube and inhabited by two crews of analogue astronauts. Post-mission reports conflicted on the habitability of the concept prototype. The co-author team of analogue astronaut, student/project lead, and design educator apply an Experience-Reflection-Action model to inform extended learning through end-user engagement, contextualized methods, and survivability versus habitability.

Keywords: Habitability, analogues, prototyping, extreme environments, user-centred, life support
systems

Full text

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25TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION
7-8 SEPTEMBER 2023, ELISAVA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND ENGINEERING, BARCELONA,
SPAIN
DESIGN INTO EXTREMES: EXTENDED LEARNING
Sue FAIRBURN1, Susan CHRISTIANEN2 and Bailee VAN RIXKOORT1
1Wilson School of Design, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada
2Extreme Design Lab, Iceland
ABSTRACT
Unprecedented climate emergencies are part of everyday conversations and experiences. As students
seek how to design for these challenges, some design educators are providing learning grounded in what
it means to live in extreme environments. As Space Architects, the authors design suitable living
conditions and life support systems for unfamiliar, remote settings. The challenge is inaccessibility to
end users, their latent needs, and real-time conditions. This case study describes a student team project
to design/build a habitat (Canada) for a client (Europe) and a crew of analogue astronauts who would
deploy and use the habitat during an *analogue mission in a lava tube (Iceland) (*situation
created/selected for its similarities to space). Design studios support students to work through a process
to meet the learning objectives. Project outcomes for the curriculum presented, are functioning full-scale
prototypes. However, for this case study, the process was robust but not fully functional. Extreme
contexts often lead to spectacular concepts, presented as 3D-modeled concepts that never reach a built
state let alone usability testing and deployment in an extreme setting. The student team’s technical
concepts informed a final full-scale prototype that was deployed in a lava tube and inhabited by two
crews of analogue astronauts. Post-mission reports conflicted on the habitability of the concept
prototype. The co-author team of analogue astronaut, student/project lead, and design educator apply an
Experience-Reflection-Action model to inform extended learning through end-user engagement,
contextualized methods, and survivability versus habitability.
Keywords: Habitability, analogues, prototyping, extreme environments, user-centred, life support
systems
1 INTRODUCTION
The term ‘extreme’ is becoming part of everyday conversations and experiences and design educators
are increasingly integrating extreme contexts into studio projects to introduce students to methodologies
and skills for critical survival responses to unprecedented weather events. To learn how to design
practical solutions for locations affected by climate change is to provide support for communities and
empower design students with agency for coping with climate change and the associated anxiety of
uncertainty. Hickman and colleagues documented the global prevalence of climate anxiety in young
adults and its impact on their daily function [1]. They identified ‘constructive or practical’ anxiety as an
important rational form of anxiety and response to danger that can lead us to seek more information and
work toward solutions and concluded that the practice of ‘solutions’ is a strategy to manage anxiety
arising from uncertain situations. [ibid]
Author Rebecca Solnit defines an emergency as “a separation from the familiar, a sudden emergence
into a new atmosphere” when she writes of disasters, survival, and hope [2]. How should we design for
a ‘sudden emergence’ into unfamiliar environments and what skills and competencies are needed to
design and build contextually appropriate solutions. Extreme weather events bring about harsh
conditions, and the most challenging factor is their unpredictability and our unpreparedness to manage
the situation. Here, analogous situations are offered as a way to prepare. Learning from experiences
arising from exposures to similar conditions can enhance our understanding of and resilience to
terrestrial extremes and help us generate solutions for climate adaptation [3].
Extreme environments are characterized by harsh environmental conditions, beyond the optimal range
for human liveability, for example, pH 2 or 11, −50°C or 113°C, saturating salt concentrations, high
radiation, 200 bars of pressure, among others. These are conditions inhospitable for life. Space is one of

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the most extreme environments. Space architects design for inaccessible contexts and work with
Analogue astronauts who experience life-in-space by participating in missions set in remote
environments (e.g., deserts, underwater, or the arctic), living as a crew in habitats, and wearing
spacesuits when performing mission-relevant roles. Learning to live off-planet requires an
understanding of how to prepare for environmental hazards through analogue missions and simulators.
For example, the Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments (SHEE) provides a platform to
conduct research into human-space activities that are distinct from living on-planet [4], including
psychosocial aspects of isolation and confinement, as well as the distinctly human aspects of surviving,
operating and cohabiting in a high-risk environment with a diverse set of crewmates [5]. This approach
is relevant on Earth for its focus on design for remote and extreme locales, thus the authors propose
design education that prepares students for unprecedented environmental events with contextualised
methods, and an understanding of end-user needs and habitability design criteria.
2 HABITAT DESIGN EDUCATION FOR EXTREMES
Learning about unfamiliar settings and unpredictable situations can expand our thinking and yield
innovative results [6]. A prior paper shared a 5-year evaluation of a hybrid product design education
model where students design for human activity in high-risk environments [7]. The program is
collaborative, explorative, and technically demanding. The students are part of a third-year studio course
in designing for unpredictable and dangerous contexts. They learn from experts who mitigate risks with
specialty knowledgebases and technical skills. Working in teams, they self-project-manage their way to
full scale, functional prototypes that are evaluated through design scenarios, expert feedback, and site-
based test protocols, to meet the following course learning outcomes:
 Confer with user groups and manufacturers in the development of design solutions
 Assess the essential user criteria through observations, meetings, role-playing, ethnographic
studies
 Formulate design criteria necessary to generate and test concepts and prototypes
In extreme environments, humans require technical products and personal protective equipment (PPE)
to survive. This curriculum focuses on both short and long emergencies for user's needs. ‘Short
emergency’ is aligned with survivability while ‘long emergency’ is aligned to the liveability of
conditions. While Kunstler uses the latter term to describe the catastrophic impacts of the techno-
industrial phase [8], the authors apply it to design adaptations for habitability. Within this curriculum,
design development requires applying user-based research insights, user criteria, and user testing to
achieve a concept that is feasible, buildable, and testable. This paper shares a case study emerging from
the same curriculum, but with challenges of scale and inaccessibility of the locale and the latent end-
users (analogue astronauts). The case study method was chosen to capture and share the distinct elements
of this project and the co-authors, including their reflections, as guided by the Experience-Reflection-
Action (ERA) cycle [9]. The project was grounded in project based learning and Problem-Based
Learning (PBL); both are active methods aligning to the pedagogical concepts of learning-by-doing /
learning-by-discovery [10].
3 CASE STUDY: ANALOGUE MISSION IN ICELAND 2021: EXPERIENCE
A client-generated brief was provided. Figure 1 shows the setting and specific access details for a habitat
to be designed and prototyped as a concept for an analogue mission set in an Icelandic lava tube
(Stefanshellir, August 2021). The client brief specified that: “the habitat needs to provide shelter for
three analog astronauts for the duration of the analog mission: this involved two nights inside the
habitat. As we are targeting multiple back-to-back missions, the habitat should be robust enough to be
used in at least two missions. Preferably, the structure can be re-deployed for future missions.”

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Figure 1. Stefanshellir lava tube access, geology and environment (Image Credit: B.van
Rikxoort)
3.1 Design Requirements - Survivability versus Habitability
Design Educator’s Experience: The “mission critical” requirement was for habitat set-up to require
less than 8 hours, as that is the limit of the astronaut’s portable oxygen supply. Other requirements to
address include portability (load dimensions and weight) given the steepness of the terrain (Figure 1)
and the need for the habitat to be freestanding within the basalt lava tube. Remaining criteria to address
were the crew’s use of the volume including: “minimal living and working space for the crew of three,
for which multiplexing of areas will be vital! The space will need to provide: a hygiene area: somewhat
shielded from the rest of the interior, minimal work and communications area, sleeping area, EVA suit
donning, and storage (EVA suits, instruments, utilities).” The team-developed design hierarchy had
eight criteria (Figure 2a);01-04 address survivability and 05-08 extended to habitability.
Figure 2. a) Design Criteria Hierarchy and b) Design Validation process (Image Credit:
B.van Rikxoort)
Student/Project lead’s Experience: With certainty for use at the core of this project combined with the
fast-approaching deadline, our team was urged to deliberate what it means to design for survivability
versus habitability. While additional design considerations were proposed - ‘performance vs testing
methods’, ‘availability vs cost’, and ‘leave no trace’ ultimately, the client’s specifications guided our
design decisions when working through the design validation process (Figure 2b).
3.2 User testing:
In analogue missions, the function and safety of design solutions are evaluated and optimized by
focusing on user-experience. The team focused on human factors (Figure 3) to support concept
evaluation and development. Habitability design applies human-centred design principles at each step
of the process. NASA’s Habitability Design Centre stresses the importance of early prototyping and
testing to save cost and to improve crew experience via 3D-modeling/prototyping mock-ups for hands-
on evaluation by both their habitability design and their human factors teams [11].

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Figure 3. Human Factors criteria (Image Credit: B.van Rikxoort)
Student/Project lead’s Experience: Using test protocols our simulations yielded insights for
unpacking/packing the habitat from the transport bag, such as: ...difficult to grip with gloves, difficult to
breathe (with mask on), heavy for user…putting the shell and floor into the bag was a struggle…5 min 10 seconds
time to pack up (Criteria 01,02 and 06). In our final report, we stated that “User testing is focused on the
users and how they understand and interact with the habitat. Looking at the human factors, we needed
to determine; how all of the design considerations will be filtered for the end results, how the users will
comprehend how the habitat will be put together, and how they will interact within it.” [12]
Design Educator’s Experience: Design validation involved user testing, feedback and review of the
design criteria against test results (Figure 2). This led to the teams’ concept prototypes (Figure 4).
Figure 4. “FullAir' Habitat” concept development (volume, structural testing) (Image Credit:
M.P. Alary)
The concepts referenced Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome; a structural design proven to be suitable
for habitability in extreme environments [13]. By week seven the team had built many sample
constructions and two full-scale concept prototypes using innovative structural inflation strategies.
Despite extensive prototyping, testing and revisions, neither concept was structurally testable as a habitat
for the upcoming analog mission. The next section offers the co-authors (three-way) insights.
4 INSIGHTS: USER TESTING HABITATS IN EXTREMES: REFLECTIONS
The student’s rigorous research and concepts informed the final construction of the full-scale concept
prototype and supported documentation for the analogue crews on deployment/redeployment, care and
maintenance of the habitat. The client independently documented the habitat project’s contribution to
research on analogues [14]. This paper sought the perspective of an Analogue astronaut:

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Table 1: Analogue Astronaut’s Experience/Reflection: Daily Log Extracts, S.C. Crew
Engineer
Student/Project lead’s Reflection: Reviewing the Analogue Astronaut’s feedback (Table 1) led to
many reflections, including these: we overlooked the need for testing the habitat in a diverse range of
temperatures, and underestimated how this can impact the success of each factor we designed; situating
Team discussions in environments where comfort is reduced, (e.g. a confined space) may have helped
to provide empathy into psychosocial challenges, and understanding where redundancy should be
incorporated may have also been revealed to us in this setting.
Design Educator’s Reflection: This project yielded insights in user testing and test protocols for
extreme, unfamiliar and remote contexts. When mapped onto the Team’s Design Criteria (Figure 2)
these insights include: repairability and replaceability are complex in extreme environments (01/06:
Deployment/Redeployment); cultural beliefs impact habitability so there was a need to prioritize forms
of privacy (05: Schedule of Use); and extending test scenarios didn’t involve design for worst case
scenarios and possibilities beyond the obvious. (05/07 Scenarios of Use)
Triangulated Reflections: Habitability design is a complex learning challenge. Collectively, the co-
author team’s insights focused on empathy, end-user criteria and scenario-based testing. Post-project,
the faculty team also engaged in discussion and debate on how to [ethically] facilitate and integrate end-
user testing for remote, unfamiliar and extreme contexts, and how to extend these insights into new
learning approaches that can be evaluated in future project iterations?
5 DESIGNING EXTENDED EDUCATION THROUGH EXTREMES – ACTIONS
Time and experience have shown that revolutionary ideas come from extremes; extraordinary
circumstances that will require design programs to expand how user testing is integrated into processes
and projects. discussing the insights yielded the following three high level themes and suggested actions
to extend design learning opportunities for unpredictable and dangerous contexts.
1. Technology for understanding context and end-user testing; the ethics and logistics of accessing
extreme contexts preclude site visits but Virtual Reality (VR) can offer the experience of
unfamiliar, dangerous contexts within ethical boundaries and is an emergent area of practice. [15]
VR also allows for rapid and scalable 3D-modeling of true-to-size structures and immersion in the
space, which can help in contextualizing design requirements prior to building.
2. Empathy and humanity are challenging mindsets to teach alongside technical content.
Conversations are important to link studio project experiences to climate change thus having
discussions of lived experiences is recommended over ‘information dumps’. Environmental
educators like Campbell advocate for a ‘contemplative, existential perspective’ to process
anthropocentric emotions [16] which is relevant to designing for the ‘long emergency’.
3. Analogues, end-user needs and habitability; Situational preparedness should prioritise exploration
and prototyping prior to a climate emergency, since a ‘sudden emergence’ involves trying to adapt
and design simultaneously. When designing analogues, students are trying to understand end-user
needs without experiencing them directly, but seeking latent end-user needs, needs that are
important yet not obvious or outwardly spoken by the average user, can address this gap [17].

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