Can designing for Mars stimulate us to think more sustainably for Earth?

This work describes the use of an arts-based project to stimulate creative thinking about design and sustainability for engineering students of all disciplines and years.‘Building a Martian House’ was a public art project where a house designed for Mars was built in the centre of the city of Bristol, UK. It was conceived by artists, designed by the public, architects and engineers and built by construction companies. In this work, a workshop for students was developed and run based on this art project. Its aim was to use the challenge of designing for Mars as a provocation to thinking about sustainability in designing for Earth. This workshop was run for two hours for thirty-five students from different years and disciplines and involved two exercises to stimulate creativity. Students completed a pre-and post-workshop questionnaire as feedback. An important part of the workshop was the viewing of an exhibition of sixty
images from the Martian house project. These images covered the design,
development and building process of the Martian house and artefacts within it.
Feedback from the questionnaires indicated that the workshop fulfilled some of the aims, it was interactive and guided, offered teamwork and independent design opportunities and provoked thoughts about resource utilisation and sustainable design.