Interface-Sponsored Design Charrette Takes Students to Mars

Design Charrette Logo Created by Steven Webber

The seventh annual department design charrette led students to new heights as they imagined a future on Mars. Professor Steven Webber challenged students to create a colony to support 100 inhabitants with a built environment for work, life, and play. Real-life demands including protection from radiation and meteor strikes as well as the production of power, water, oxygen, and food generation influenced the designs and led to a great variety of solutions that sprang from the students’ utopian or dystopian concepts. The results were a beautiful and diverse array of design solutions.

After weeks of deliberation, the faculty selected the winners and runners up. Congratulations to first place winners Meagan Haley, Parker Heitzmann, Christine Wahl, and Aubrey Honerbrink and others who placed or received honorable mention in this year’s competition. A big thank you goes to Interface, who has sponsored the Charrette for the last five years.

The first floor halls of the William B. Johnston building are still lined with the student work. If you are able to visit, we encourage you to take time to walk around and enjoy a glimpse of what our future could look like.