As a National Science Talent Search finalist, I built a liquid organic dye laser following directions from the Amateur Scientist section of the Scientific American magazine. I started to do Physics at the University and then decided to switch to engineering to make my tinkering hobbies "pay"! I sketched and painted and built radio controlled planes and did aerial photography from kites. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and then became very intrigued by architectural design and concepts creation.

As an apprentice in an architectural firm, I watched the skill with which architects manipulated complex, ever–changing design requirements to produce beautiful buildings, campuses, and their interiors and furniture, using imagery such as sketches, line drawings, paintings, and models of all kinds, all in order to appreciate the project better, well in advance of realization. The synthesis process is quite contemplative and visual, as opposed to abstract, structured and logical. So I chose to get some formal training in this field, studied architecture at the undergraduate level, and graduated with a Masters degree in Building Science from the University of Southern California, a unique program that allows creative blend of architectural synthesis and engineering analysis.

Concept creation is an art and a science, and constant practice is the best method to being a creative architect. As it is hard or impossible to predict when a good idea might appear, the best method is to absorb the problem and meditate upon it, play with the issues that comprise the problem, and constantly juggle the various elements and look at it from different angles. Change the environment by altering or introducing new parameters. Take notes on solutions as they appear and list their merits and limitations. As the design process continues we end up with a group of promising ideas and by refining them further we arrive at some beautiful solutions to the intractable problem at hand.

Nature, it seems to me, is the best teacher about shapes and forms, and architecture is all about morphology for habitation. Nature also exhibits contrast and contradiction, that a good architect learns to live with, nay even apply skillfully to successful designs. I tend to meditate upon natural and biological forms and processes to find inspiration and metaphors for my work. Darwinian theory seems to work well even in the creation and refinement of architectural concepts. Designs are evolved over several cycles or iterations. The strong boned ones survive these iterations, even getting better while the weak ones are eliminated in the process. One of the prime functions of an architect is to provide abundant choice for the client, and this evolutionary method also helps create alternatives by producing hybrid concepts.

In order to be a good architect, it is important to become visual and graphic in the way you communicate your ideas. Learn to sketch and paint. Observe how objects look and feel in changing light and shade. Study different materials and their texture. Build models of all kinds of things from everything you can find lying around. Cartons, styrofoam cups, straws and toothpicks, wooden blocks, aluminum foil and cans, plastic bottles.....(hint)....the kitchen is the best place to start.....before you start to explore office supplies and finally go to the model shop and spend all your pocket money!

I think that it is also a very good idea to learn as much as we can before we decide to settle on Mars. And that is exactly what the spacecraft from Earth are doing over there. Soon we will have all the information we need to be able to ponder what kind of materials we need to build for the Mars environment, including her climate and seasons, dust storms, radiation and terrain.

We might also want to consider how small communities look like and operate here on Earth. How small groups of dwellings have evolved to become nice towns and cities. An understanding of this evolutionary process will help us design the Mars community of 2030, to avoid the pitfalls of poor programming, inadequate space allocation, functional conflicts and congestion. It is quite possible that there are lessons to be learned from long–duration submarine missions, long stays in the polar caps and we will also glean precious information from Earth orbiting space stations.

I think that end–to–end, functional and operational simulations might hold the key to the design of efficient extraterrestrial communities. By building structures and testing them here on Earth and then possibly on orbit and then on the moon, we might evolve very interesting and useful structures and their supporting technologies, that are failure tolerant, able to better adapt to unseen changes, and protect and preserve the crew in case of emergency including rehearsing for evacuation of the facility and base if necessary.

We know that as we design long duration missions, human beings are the most fragile part of this hard, high technology endeavor. Accordingly, utmost care is needed in the design, operations and maintenance of these vehicles and facilities of the community that will allow maximum crew comfort and productivity. A deep understanding of crew behavior and psyche as well as proper psychological/physiological maintenance mechanisms are essential before we embark on such a mission.

Architects and engineers are in agreement (for once!) that the best and most economically sound communities on Mars may be built of materials that are available there, rather than haul them all the way from Earth that would otherwise make it very, very expensive. This is known as In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technology. So, maybe we should think of building structures out of Mars soil. On Earth we call structures built of soil, adobe. We could build the exterior shells of habitats and workshops and large meeting and social gathering places, agriculture and animal farms, all out of Martian adobe. Related structures like roads, spacecraft landing pads, hangars, tunnels and towers could also be built using this method.