Advanced design strategies for space habitats:Bridging human factors and digital tools for enhanced living environments

In the field of space exploration, changes are occurring rapid-ly, in different spheres: from political/governmental to social, economic, and cultural ones (OECD, 2019). An increasing push toward the democratization of Space has been characterized by significant changes across various levels of analysis: Macro-scale, Meso-scale, Micro-scale. Within this framework, beyond the dimensions of geopolitics and security, urgent issues emerge that require intervention: the psycho-physical well-being and interpersonal relationships of future crews, both in short- and long-duration missions. The study Beyond the Space Life. Digital Living Lab for Human Life in Space (Project 1.10 of the MICS extended partnership), explores how the evolution of the concept of well-being is crucial with-in microgravity environments (Kanas & Manzey, 2008) especially for a context where space exploration will be accessible to new users (NASA, 2020) and it constitutes the methodolog-ical foundation for this contribute. The ideation phase of the design process is assumed as an initial touchpoint, where the user’s psychological, emotional, and perceptual characteristics become drivers (Vakoch, 2012) for a more adaptive, responsible and advanced design approach (Succini et al., 2024). With the aim of optimizing design times and processes from both digital and virtual perspectives, the research also focus-es on analyzing the current pipeline to improve the simulation and visualization of the 3D model and its surrounding envi-ronment. This approach enables the reduction of development times for designers’ practices, thereby positively affecting the environmental impact of the design process. In addition to highlighting these aspects, the contribution emphasizes how interdisciplinarity, together with the role of design as a mediator of knowledge (Celaschi, 2008), can foster greater accessibility within this context. The acceleration of the process of collaborative knowledge can support future design-ers approaching this field in developing innovative concepts.