On March the 4th, 2017 something magical happened at the AA. We organised our first family event and it was a very special one!! It was open to children and their families from different backgrounds. We all gathered that Saturday morning to learn about futuristic architecture and to design buildings for a future city on Mars.

I had the tremendous honour to work alongside space architect and NASA collaborator David Nixon. He was founder of “Future System” next to Jan Kaplický and for some years astronaut quarters designer.

On the workshop day, it was great fun to share the unusual keynote presentation full of artefacts and futuristic designs that we had prepared together some weeks before. We discussed with the children how we could grow lettuces inside a spaceship or how we should design moving architecture for a windy planet and dig deep wells looking for water.

Children had time to draw their own buildings, debate and compare their ideas before creating a collective future city on Mars. Parents and carers were also invited to dream of utopian buildings with us. We allowed time for each child to explain her or his design so it could not have ended better! Thanks a million to all the children who made this day so special!