The first eco-habitat on Earth created through space-grade technology

TERA is unlike any other home on this planet, 3-D printed from plants and minerals found in abundance on our planet and fitted with the most advanced technological, smart and eco-friendly products. Situated on acres of undisturbed nature just 1.5 hours by train from NYC, TERA gives guests a quiet appreciation of Earth while offering a glimpse into life on a new planet.

TERA will be available for nightly stays starting March 2020. Every stay contributes to TERA's sustainable and scientific mission: emphasizing the need for renewable technologies to save this planet, while researching what’s needed to enable life on a new one.

AI SpaceFactory is a multi-planetary architectural and technology design agency founded by a veteran, award-winning architecture team who built some of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. Recently, our Mars habitat prototype MARSHA won half a million dollars from NASA for its ground-breaking designs – the first-ever 3D printed habitat of its height designed to enable human life on Mars. MARSHA has gained attention around the world and featured in The Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Financial Times, OGlobo, and more.

While we were designing for sustainable life on a new planet, we realized our materials and technology had the potential to be leaps and bounds more sustainable than traditional construction (especially concrete and steel). It could transform the way we build on Earth – maybe even save our planet. 

So out of MARSHA, we created TERA: a new kind of habitat that brings space technology back to Earth. TERA interjects into the building industry’s massive waste of materials and creates a proof-of-concept for a new type of building – one that is durable and twice as strong as concrete, yet recyclable and compostable.

TERA will be a futuristic terrestrial home for this planet – one that emphasizes the beauty of its natural environment. Unlike conventional buildings, it can be be harvested from the earth and returned to the earth.

“TERA and MARSHA are from the same family; they just have been born on different planets.” – TERA Lead Designer and Architect, Sima Shahverdi

Astronauts often talk about experiencing a profound appreciation of Earth when they look back at our Planet from Space, but we shouldn’t have to leave our Home in order to reach that realization. TERA was designed with this in mind, aiming to foster a deep appreciation for Earth while promoting a sustainable way of living on this Planet.

Our first TERA (TERA-1), is the juncture where the lessons we learned through MARSHA meet the energy of the land along the Hudson River in Upstate New York. The wooded site, with its untouched terrain and sweeping views of the Hudson River, gave us specific dimensions and angles to work with, and TERA has transformed from MARSHA into a two-story building with an exterior 3D printed shell covering a wooden structurally independent interior. At several points, the exterior shell celebrates its intersection with both the natural environment and its hidden, interior structure.

Though filled with light from porous windows on one side, TERA harbors a mysterious and magnificent inner design. Once you step inside of the building, you will discover another world – one that is beautifully futuristic and oriented towards captivating views of the scenic Hudson River.

On the ground floor, you’ll find TERA’s living area – equipped with a bathroom and shower, a food preparation counter, and a living room with a seating area that pours out to a beautiful 3D printed terrace. The terrace will provide an outdoor seating area overlooking the land, the forest, and the Hudson river.

Inside, stairs like a series of curved wooden layers will separate the ground floor from the more private second floor. The second floor can be adapted to the activities of its inhabitants with a simple rearrangement of the furniture – transforming the concept of a sleeping / relaxing area as one that can double as an eating and gathering area.

TERA is a living laboratory where feedback and operational data will be used to improve future designs for our future Earth and Space habitats. Each TERA will build on the last until we achieve highly autonomous structurally performing human-rated habitats. Just like MARSHA informed the development of TERA, all the knowledge we gain from TERA will feed back into our extraterrestrial design and construction.

TERA is unique from other construction projects because it’s designed to be as minimally invasive as possible to its surrounding environment.

In our first design phase, we altered the shape of MARSHA to fit it into a wooded landscape and maximize its square footage. We also carefully studied the mechanical details of 3D printing a structure with more windows – examining the angles at which we could print the largest number of window openings without the material collapsing over the empty space below it.

After acquiring the land for TERA, we completed an assessment of the build site through a number of mechanisms including a laser scan of the site’s topography. This will allow us to print TERA without leveling the ground and keep the land as close to its existing contours as possible. When TERA's first lifecycle is over, she'll be recycled without having left any trace on the land she inhabited.

In our second design phase, we’ll create a full 3D simulation of our print on a computer to determine how TERA will get anchored to its site and make sure our robot doesn’t collide with any obstacles (like rocks). We’ll also conduct additional material testing: we’ll print a portion of the floor and wall in our lab space to strength test horizontal pressure from wind and earthquakes (lateral load), and we’ll test for fire resistance (something not required by NASA, but that will enable us to authenticate our habitats as designed for human life).

Once on the site, we’ll create minimally invasive gravel pathways and clear out just enough vegetation to help us get robots to the print site and set up a mobile field office / mobile laboratory, allowing us to continue prototyping and testing before the final build (including perform an “air print” – a print without material – to ensure our robot arm has enough space to build).

TERA will ultimately be 3D printed on site with AI SpaceFactory’s mobile robotic platform, allowing us to face and adapt to the challenges of building harmoniously with the environment. It will be retrofitted with its interior wooden structure and finishings and be ready for its first guests in March 2020.

TERA will be located in Upstate New York – only 1.5 hours by train from New York City by train. The site is easily accessible by both car and public transportation, yet it feels as though it’s in a distant land, far from the city – encased in a forest of trees along the Hudson River. The site has several vantage points of the river and a beautiful path that leads to several overlooks, one of which will house tables for scenic meals along the river. The land has acres of unspoiled nature to explore as well as several private trails and a small stream that runs through the property – and all can be accessed by guests during their stay.

We’re already geared up to print TERA – we have the equipment, the construction material, and the build site. Now, we just need the funds to make TERA the most sustainable it can be – by taking it completely off-grid.

All the funds raised from this campaign will help us reach that goal by connecting well water and adding solar power. And anything raised above our funding goal will be used to make TERA even greater and more sustainable. That means extra off-grid features like a grey water purification system and aquaponic garden, and extra amenities for all of our Indiegogo backers, like a high-powered telescope for stargazing, and catered picnic brunches for backers. But we can’t reach this goal alone – to create our off-grid vision for TERA, we need your help to get there.

AI SpaceFactory was founded in 2017 by architect David Malott to create life-sustaining architecture for long-term missions to Mars, with the goal of revolutionizing the architecture of Earth. We’re now a team of 8 architects, technologists, artists and engineers invested in finding and developing transformative, sustainable technologies on and beyond our world.