Bjarke Ingels, the architect who dreams of a city on Mars

Creative, precursor, innovative or off-beat, architects are a dime a dozen! But with the energy of a Viking, Bjarke Ingels falls in no category. This seductive 44-year-old Dane heads an agency of 500 persons, aiming at wild but reachable objectives—the latest being the delivery of the new Galeries Lafayette department store, on the Champs-Élysées.

The Martian city of architect Bjarke Ingels

After having tackled the Denmark Pavilion for the Universal Exhibition of Shanghai, tower Two of the World Trade Center, in New York, the Google headquarters, in California, and Europa City, on the "Triangle of Gonesse" territory, next to the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, he now aims to conquer space and has launched a new challenge with the idea of Mars Science City.

When leaving the secured domes, it will be necessary to use all-terrain rovers. © DMO

Implemented with sand from Dubai, the public spaces of Mars Science City seem more real than nature. © DMO

Preparing extra-terrestrial life

This project of nearly one square kilometer will be presented in Dubai, in 2020, at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Spatial Centre to serve as model, reproducing human population on the red planet. Under the domes, it will shelter laboratories for studies and food, energy, water and landscapes. The ultimate step will be to select the candidates ready to test experimental Martian life…

Laboratories, programs dedicated to researchers, housing, the structures will be a permanent experimental field. © DMO