Ascensio - Ascending

Project Ascensio aimed to explore the challenging & exciting prospect of combining a sustainable ocean-based space elevator, with a multi-use spaceport. The research and development of the project noted the vast challenges such a project would face, while striving for a luxurious and bold design.
The project was produced for the Jacques Rougerie Competition; an annual international design and research competition that challenges designers to think radically about both ocean and space architecture. The 2023 edition was contested by 750 designers, from 150 different nationalities. The jury was comprised of architects, artists, engineers and a former astronaut. Projects had to produce a wide array of images, video, research and speculation.
The competition brief stated: “Your projects should be bold and forward-looking. Enthusiastic rather than standardised, they will demonstrate that inspiration, when it combines form, function and environment, can take a simple idea to places where it is least expected.” These words resonated with me and sparked the project. Initially I hoped to design spectacular space architecture; the likes of which we see in today’s science-fiction. However, I was soon unable to ignore the question: “how do we build such mega-projects in space”. Rockets seem to truly limit our ability to expand beyond our planet and the historical concept of a Space Elevator seemed the most logical, yet exciting answer.
Building upon the plethora of research and speculation on the subject, I wanted to inject my passion for design to create something bold and exciting. While I expect the first space elevator will likely be hyper-efficient and bare-bones, my background in interior design and my research into existing space architecture bring into focus the human-experience. In my opinion, for space architecture to be sustainable in the long-term, we must champion wellness and produce welcoming and spacious environments in which people can relax, live and play…with human-experience at its core.
‘Project Ascensio’ as I named it, included a mobile ocean-based spaceport tethered to an asteroid counterweight in geostationary orbit, with a bold, ringed Space Station along the way. The imagined space station supplies contrasting areas of construction and deluxe space tourism, with varying levels of artificial gravity. The all-important climbers were designed in two styles: cargo and passenger. The cargo climbers focus on efficiency, while the passenger climbers aim to produce a glamourous, emotional experience.
The response to the project this month has been unexpected and at times overwhelming! The project has been featured nationally in websites and radio in the BBC, Daily Mail, TheSun, Dezeen, as well as internationally in countries such as Poland, Spain, USA, United Arab Emirates, etc.