Building a Martian House is a public art project that made a prototype of a real Martian house.

It was built in M Shed Square, Bristol, UK and was open to the public between August and October 2022.

It was created by many different people working together through a co-design process – from rocket scientists to primary school children. 

Mars is a place where you’d have to live carefully and resourcefully. Imagining how a small community would live there offers a lens on our lives here on Earth today and our relationship with consumerism.

The house started as an empty shell that was brought to life with DIY experiments, ideas, colours, fabrics, plants and research. The artists explored together with the public over 10 weeks what a new, resourceful culture might look like. The house acted as a blank canvas to try things out and imagine new futures in relation to our lives today. 

The project was led and conceived by artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent, working with Hugh Broughton Architects and Pearce+. It was presented in partnership with M Shed, and funded by The Edward Marshall Trust.

Take a virtual tour of the house to see what it looked like inside.

The Martian House Virtual tour was created by Future Virtual Ltd, a local family business who specialise in creating incredible Matterport 360 virtual tours of unique spaces around the UK and beyond. Check out their website for more about them. https://www.futurevirtual.co.uk/portfolio

Watch a documentary about the project here: