Back in 2017, architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group were asked to design a prototype of a Martian city by the Dubai government. What they came up with is a stunning vision of what life on the Red Planet could one day be like, CNN reports.
The project is part of the United Arab Emirates' Mars Science City, a space intended for Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre.
So far, the city is not much more than a concept — but that doesn't make the vision itself any less beautiful.
The architects imagine a future Martian city as being composed of several pressurized biodomes, filled with oxygen mined from underground ice.
Solar power provides energy.
"Since there is very little atmosphere on Mars, the heat transfer will be very low, meaning that the air inside the domes will not cool down as fast as it would on Earth," Bjarke Ingels Group architect Jakob Lange told CNN.
To get away from harmful radiation on the surface, rooms would be buried about 20 feet underground.
"In the future on Mars, you would have skylights in your underground cave that would be like aquariums, with fish swimming around," Lange said.
What makes matters even more interesting is the fact that gravity is only a third that on Earth.
"It creates almost like a completely new rule set that you have to follow when designing architecture in space."
The final city — a conceptual design intended for Dubai on Earth, not Mars — will include a research lab, educational facility, museum, amphiteather and co-working office space.
READ MORE: Architects have designed a Martian city for the desert outside Dubai [CNN]
More on Martian habitats: IKEA Designed the Interior of a Mars Habitat - Futurism
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