A week of dialogue, design, and shared visions between Rome and Barcelona, imagining life on the Red Planet.
IED Roma lands in Barcelona for the Thesis Project MarsLife
Date
21 May 2025
A week-long international mobility, preceded by online activities, has just concluded in Barcelona. This involved Interior and Product Design students from IED Roma. The initiative, part of the MarsLife thesis lab, offered students a formative experience at the Spanish campus. It follows a recent exchange that welcomed a selection of students from the Interior and Transportation Design programs at IED Barcelona to the Rome campus, fostering a cultural and design-driven dialogue between the two schools.
The shared project was created with the goal of developing concepts for habitats, objects, and services intended for a future self-sustaining community on Mars. It explores themes such as space design, sustainability, and well-being in extreme environments.
Throughout the week, students presented the progress of their projects, took part in feedback sessions with international tutors and faculty, and collaborated in teams through classroom work and field activities, all within an open and intercultural setting.
MarsLife is developed in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Caimi, and represents an interdisciplinary journey that weaves together space design, technological innovation, and responsible design practices. Starting from the critical conditions of the Martian environment—reduced gravity, thin atmosphere, and isolation—students are challenged to envision practical solutions for future living, with potential applications on Earth as well.
The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Program, which increasingly integrates the Blended Mobility model: a hybrid educational approach combining physical mobility abroad with virtual learning activities. The result is a dynamic, comprehensive educational experience that is fully in step with the evolving European landscape.
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