快猫短视频

2001: Building for space travel edited by John Zukowsky, Harry Abrams,
拢27, ISBN 0810944901

NOSTALGIA is cheap: what space-watcher did not shed a tear at the cremation
of that orbiting broom cupboard, the Russian space station Mir? It didn鈥檛 matter
that it wasn鈥檛 a very good space station. It had character. There was machinery
on board that not even Flight Control could identify, and experimental apparatus
could go missing for months.

Nothing we build for space is actually done with people in mind, it seems. At
least space stations have an excuse for their state. They are the result of the
requirements of science and irregular government funding. Both favour nasty
modular design. We, the tax-paying public, are not fooled. We want doughnuts and
we want them now.

But the classic rotating-wheel space station鈥攗seless for science but
great for vacations鈥攎ust wait until the human experience of space begins
paying its way. The best-laid plan for a torus to date comes from the Shimizu
Corporation: a hotel.

Meanwhile, John Zukowsky鈥檚 2001鈥攁 serious coffee-table book
about space design鈥攊s almost painfully aware 鈥渉ow hard [it is] to sell the
fulfilment of a dream when the fulfilment look[s] so strange鈥�. There are
predictable nods to Russian architect and designer Kasimir Malevich (think
geometrical abstract), Suprematist architecture (think Star Wars battle
cruisers) and Stelarc鈥檚 robot-heavy performance art鈥攂ut who in all honesty
gives a monkey鈥檚? It is von Braun鈥檚 rotating wheel that, quite rightly,
dominates 2001.