Why You Should Use Architecture as Inspiration for Sci-Fi Ship Design
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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Spacedock delves into architecture as an inspiration for sci-fi spacecraft design.
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You are back on sopotify? I vaguely remember, Danial stating Sojurn was leaving over contract/royalty split issues.
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Spotify, at least for audiobook and audio drama creators, pay a quite reasonable rate.
@@Spacedock derp is me, somehow I mistook the largest music streaming service for Audible. My bad. Good to hear Sojourn getting more widely distributed.
1:09 speaking of Yamato space battleship Yamato ship breakdowns when?
Love your material! Yeah, the techno-Gothic aesthetic of the the Imperium’s ships in 40k really does it for me
One thing that I always love in sci-fi is when they have a continuous shot that follows the characters through the ship, giving you a clear picture of how it is layed out.
I always love the slice of life sorta stuff, what is actually like aboard ship.
I've been trying to write some slice-of-life shorts within my setting now that my main project is out of my hands. I've been loving writing about the random things that go on in a ship or station, or just a day in the life of somebody visiting one of the massive colony crater cities, like Occator, Ceres.
I've loved thinking about how people would just get around, what there is to do, and how life is compared to what we're all used to.
With the star of the show: the post-title almost-one-continuous-shot walkthrough of Serenity. Four and a half minutes of apparently-single-take handheld camera. (IIRC, there are two or three well-disguised cuts.)
Firefly was the best for this, I love how you get to see how every room and hallway connects and how lived in the ship seems.
@@sharksareneat8723 ...You beat me to it.
Was about to say the intro shot in Serenity does it well with the walk through from the bridge back to the engine room passing the crew quarters then down to the cargo bay and infirmary.
Some serious steady cam work with continuous shot to give you a real feel.
Exactly
There's a particular Union ship in Firefly that I always thought looked like a city in space. I love it because it looks so practical and different from other ships in sci-fi, and even the series.
First thing that came to my mind, too. Just a floating skyrise.
That was the "Dortmunder". Named after the city in Germany.
It was one hell of a ship.
A really great design. A floating Cityblock in space.
Came here for this, also the Sentinel citadel in Doom Eternal is basically a castle turned spaceship
In that vein, cant forget Atlantis (stargate) as well.
Ironically enough, the Dortmunder was designed specifically to look impractical, because the engines are at "ground level" but the skyscrapers give it a wild imbalanced effect, showing that the Alliance doesn't need to conserve resources by creating practical designs, they just stack cities on top of a big set of engines.
That said, the shot of the gunships hanging off the bottom of the ship like bats ready to launch at a moment's notice was pretty neat.
WH40K has some of my favorite spaceship designs, from the elegant-yet-brutal flying Cathedrals of the Imperium and forces of Chaos, to the ramshackle and comical "this really shouldn't work" jerry-rigged Ork ships. Star Wars also has some stunning designs, especially in the Imperial capital ships (the Executor class being my all-time favorite space warship). Colin Cantwell could really do some incredible things with a simple triangle.
"really shouldn't work"
Don't forget the lore!
@@VoxAstra-qk4jz Oh, I get how Orks work. Don't worry about that. Back when I played GW games, Orks were my go-to race 'cos I loved the in-game lore behind 'em. They might be the ONLY faction that's actually having a good time in the 40K 'verse.
@andyb1653 to be fair that's because they are less a species and more a bioweapon designed for war.
Might as well throw in the Castle of Lions from Voltron: Legendary Defenders. A bit of a surprise when we found out it was really a rocket ship in the first season but the more you saw it the more sense a castle would make as a ship.
I mean, except for bricks falling off when accelerating.
@@deusexaethera Space bricks son! They stick together with electro-magnetic sealing and provide thermal shielding for atmospheric re-entry!
Damn, just remember that show.
I watch the show until season 2 finale and never pick it back, does the show really go downhill from there?
@@boywithcrackers3871 It's not the dumpster fire that fans make it out to be but it does dip in quality after season 2. Post season 2 has some great characters and concepts but they get underutilized or messed with by execs.
It was a starship in the OG series too, in the movie 'fleet of doom'
I've been working on a ship design using art deco for some time now - works surprisingly well and you get these awesome dieselpunk vibes quite easily. ^^
Oh, you know that Art Deco motif of a series of angular ridges used as a centerpiec of a design? You could make fighter craft that are just that shape on its own.
Or perhaps a ship shaped like an Art Deco bird hood ornament.
@@Banchoking I used it for a very "boxy" spacecraft design akin to a DropShip from BattleTech od a drop pod from Warhammer 40k. It's supposed to be the core of a royal or noble family's palace. Consider it the Donjon of the palace of a family governing a planet, which also acts as an escape vessel in case the planet is overrun and the family has to be evacuated (although leaving a planet this way is officially seen as ceeding control to the invaders). I might upload a few renders on Deviant Art eventually, but right now I'm fully occupied with fixing Fallout 4. :D
You got me with the 40k ship thumb nail. Best sci fi universe ship design
Thunderbird 3 is an excellent example of a combination of chemical rocket with art deco style
Cool video! Quick note: Mass Effect took most of it's inspiration from Syd Mead's retro-futuristic architectural sketches. This goes of course for the buildings you can see on on the planets like Earth, Thessia or Eden Prime but it also goes for the ships that are not the Normandy like the human destroyers and dreadnoughts as well as the asari and turian ships.
Prothean architecture is brutalist.
- hoojiwana from Spacedock
"You could even lean real hard into that style with big train-like water tanks and nuclear-thermal rockets to make it into steam, or go even harder into that look and straight-up have trains in space like in Sunless Skies, but that _derails_ the discussion from architecture. To get back on _track_ the spooky ships..."
Are you proud of yourself, Mr script-writer? Are you happy with the decisions you made in life?
Yes
- hoojiwana from Spacedock
There are some aspects,
1. floating/cloud/moving city-sized motherships.
2. as first step to extroplanets terraforming process.
3. long-distance space journey and get ready to meet your galactic neighbors in any time.
4. planet-sized mothership networks.
Holly Jencka's art is just the kind of vibe I've been looking for in ship design! I love how it has both the elegant wing-like radiators and a core inspired by cathedrals without looking overly fragile.
If I ever make a sci-fi themed game, your channel will probably have been the inspiration.
Besides architecture, another source of inspiration I really like seeing in sci-fi vehicles is nature. A lot of animals have body plans that work really well when translated to spacecraft and transport ships, particularly among insects, birds, and sea creatures. Similarly, a lot of plants and fungi, and certain molluscs, have body plans that could translate to very nice looking space stations, while still being incredibly defensible.
Big ups for mentioning the Nostalgia, one of my favorite ships in sci fi
The alliance from firefly has awesome ships that look like buildings or cities. Love those
6:16 the Mercuty City Tower is basically the exact same as Orion class destroyers in Freespace 1 & 2 :)
ALso thanks for mentioning Nostalia for infinity...
It is my absolute all time favorite ships of any kind, litterally the most amazing thing to happen to scifi universe imo, from its name, hard scifi elements,its capabilities, its crew, its weird affliction and crazy captain, and transformation... That shit is underrated as fuck.
Not to mention the cryo-arithmetic engines and hypometric weaponry. (Also bladder mines bc funny name)
Bentusi vessels from Homeworld series is a good example of spaceships inspired by buildings, especially their tradeships, with internal cavity literally lined with bright neon lights and Japanese-esque malls of Akihabara
Talos-1 station from Prey is literally retro skyscrapers as gigantic space station
I really enjoyed the Behemoth/Novu from Expanse and Asari dreadnoughts from Mass Effects for symbolism and design. Great ships as well.
Depends on the style of universe you're going for, really. If your spaceships are basically produced like _cars_ then you'll need to minimize the flashiness of the designs if you're using more 'traditional' production methods, to give an example.
While the settings I'm working on don't have that level of production, they tend to be very 'plain' compared to others. A spaceship every few months at war-pace is pretty quick compared to most.
One of the best Sci-Fi systems that isn't well known is the TSR Star Frontiers. It's a precursor to the hard sci-fi The Expanse in that is has no artificial gravity and horizontal floors. It also has atomic thrusters that are kept on a boom like Star Trek because of the intense radiation. Worth checking out if you haven't already.
Not architecture, but in a similar vein there's the art of Eric Geusz, who makes gorgeous spaceships out of ordinary object like can openers, ice cream scoops, electric razors, etc. There's a LOT of thought and effort that goes into making commercial products look appealing to consumers, and that translates remarkably well to spaceships.
Wow, this just kickstarted my imagination and it actually seems like it could lead to really cool designs. Thanks for the ideas.
One underused style is Roman. Columns, high ceilings, lots of cloth and tapestry, bright colors and muted lighting. Stargate does this sometimes but I think it is a design space with huge opportunities
Also imagine classical Chinese style, with solar panels like tiles and huge interconnected modules built like the temple of heaven. Outlaw star had some of that in its mafia ships
the game i am working on atm, has a few concepts and designs that are leaning heavily into 19th century architecture and naval ships as a base for the the spaceship design
6:15 It reminded me of the Orion ship from the video game Freespace.
6:11 That's actually straight up the GTD Orion class from FreeSpace.
Suddenly I imagine the Chrysler building as a VIP transport floating across the stars gracefully drawn by solar sails
forgot to mention the ICC Berlin that building already looks like a spaceship including its elevated walkway looking like a gang way to board the ship. its interior also looks scifi
The 2006 BBC series "Hyperdrive" uses the BT tower as inspiration for its ships - was surprised it wasn't referenced in this video!
You did a whole bit on architecture as space ships and you didn't mention the Space Needle? It literally has space in the name! And also the floor at the top rotates, and like space ships love rotatey bits. It's got these cool elevators that take you to the top. I mean, you can get there by traveling on a monorail (monorail!). It's got that Jetson's Googie architecture! Why the snub? What's not to love?
I always thought the HMS Camden Lock from the 2006 BBC show Hyperdrive looked pretty cool, and that was basically just the BT Communication Tower in London with some engines stuck to the bottom.
How did everyone know about the Camden Lock but me?!
- hoojiwana from Spacedock
Very nice video :)
I'm at the moment creating a rts which needs a visual style and I was thinking about using e.g. ancient greek architecture and navy designs for it.
Thanks for making me not feel stupid about it :D
this is what i did as a kid, imagining all the skyscrapers as spaceships lol
I love the fact you included the Belfron Tower as a bad ugly example of Brutalism, having lived near there in Tower Hamlets, it made me chuckle as a lot of locals hate it too!
The reason the Effle Tower can't take off is the ion engines were equipped to the Statue of Liberty until being refitted to the Chrysler Building.
Mercury City Tower just made me think an Orion-class destroyer from the freespace pair of games when you tilted it like that lol!
Inspiration comes in many forms and can lead to very beautiful creations or pretty boring ones as well.
Probably my favorite spaceship styles comes from fractured space.
"I mean, the Eiffel Tower is damn near a spaceship already! Though, it's not necessary to go _that_ far..."
Real Civil Engineer, I'm staring at your Kerbal Space Program save. I'm staring _hard..._
Brings a whole new meaning to flying buttresses.
Space stations that aren’t anchored can be considered flying brutalist buildings or may actually be inspired by real buildings. Some *are* building structures hollowed out or just converted into horizontal ship hull and corridors with rockets and guns strapped to them.
5:29 and the armor we see, is also in that style.
Loved the Gamilas Dimensional Submarine in Space Battleship Yamato 2199!
A submarine in space - popping up from another dimension to launch its torpedos - how cool is that?
Not so relevant to your video - but the film clips you use brought it to mind.
Have to agree with the gunstar. She's a beautiful and nightmarish creation.
Not gonna lie, the big inspiration for my starship would be the Helicarrier from the MCU. Mostly for the wings, which would be for VTOL take-offs and for RCS thrusters
Clean corporate with sleek and smooth edges or gritty industrial designs are what tickles my pickle.
There is a much better reason for the super-long and thin ships than getting away from engine radiation...
If you are traveling very fast through space, aerodynamics becomes a significant factor. Seriously. Even a deep-space vacuum has enough particles in it that they matter if you're going extremely fast. If you're traveling through a region with dust or debris, it becomes a factor at even lower speeds.
So, a pretty realistic design ends up being an armoured plate of some sort with the rest of the ship being a long truss/cylindar behind it.
I really enjoyed this. Provides a ton of insight and suggestions on designing spaceships. I do wonder, when it comes to advance alien civilizations what type of architecture would you go with? Usually, I can see neo-futurism being used but how about more natural looking to even organic designs? The ones I can think of are the spaceships from Babylon 5 such as the Whitestars that almost look like a whale. Or even the ships of the Minbari, Vorlons, and the Shadows? Or even the ships from Arrival that look like rocky pillars with a meditative feeling.
Disney's "The Black Hole" had some issues, but I always loved the design of the Cygnus.
halfay trough the video I hoped to see the Sidonia ship mentioned :)
There is nothing more beautiful than a church in space.
I’m writing a Galaxy Express inspired story about space trains 4:01
I would like to watch an episode about the Riddick universe's ships. There are meny interesting designs, especially in the second movie.
I am all for more iron and glas train station architecture everywhere.
Surprised you didn't mention Valley Forge and its sister ships from Silent Running. The truss section of the spacecraft was said to be modeled directly on a broadcast tower in Tokyo.
Likewise, I can't look at the CN Tower in Toronto without expecting it to lift off.
The ridiculously short ranges for space battles would also have been ridiculously close in World War 2.
> that thing is like 4km in lenght, so the gothic styling wont be that visible
the smallest imperial navy vessles that are warp capable, are 1,5km long, things like a gloriana class is 20km long, and you can still see the gothic architecture in it
You missed the gothic Hive thrownworld Dreadnaught of Bungies’ Destiny
I could see someone using the Sydney Opera house as a basis for a ship design,
My favourite ships would have to be from Halo. Whether it's UNSC Halberd class destroyers, CCS class battle-cruisers, or the elegant yet impossible Sojourner class dreadnoughts of the Forerunner ecumene.
Brutalist: vogon spaceships from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Surprised you didn't mention the city ships (e.g. Atlantis) from Stargate, or the pyramid based ships the Goa'uld use.
Vampire Hunter D Blood Lust has a spaceship with very unique Art Nouveaux styling (yes, the vampires go to space in that story). It’s a shame it didn’t get more screen time, the whole movie is painfully gorgeous with a heavy emphasis on historical-inspired fantasy/scifi art and architecture
Going deeper into this topic - is the whole (Star Wars) imperial navy basicly a 'Bauhaus' navy in design and architecture?
I wish people start using this more as private owned ships become a thing
If you wanted trains in space, I could mention galaxy express 999. But that anime has more cartoon logic that Yamato ( same creator)
I hope people do more than boring gray box or boring cylinders with heat radiators.
Give me the Niagara Mohawk Building (now National Grid) in Syracuse, NY
And you didn't even get in to Firefly's "office buildings in space" a la the Tohoku Class.
Is this episode's background music from Everspace? I swear Ive heard it there
Great video ! You showed me things i have never seen I will watch this several times. Have you ever made a video about space ships that blend in like the one in cowboys vs aliens or a working TARDIS ? and I remember a space ship called the "Tarantula" from a book of space ships called 2100 I think .
You mean the book "Spacecraft, 2000-2100 A.D.: Terran Trade Authority Handbook"
@@toddkes5890 Thank you.
A person could have fun with the Seattle Space Needle
"Architecture is just art we live in"
Why doesn't anyone get that...Jacob Stone, Librarian.
Do you have any videos that feature or reference the ships from EVE Online?
The ship at 5:51 looks similar to a Minmatar Fenrir
個人的な考えでは
やはり銀河英雄伝説のブリュンヒルトかな。旧作の。
最もシンプルで洗練されたデザインの宇宙戦艦は。
あれ以上に美しいスペースシップは未だにない。
in my personal opinion
Brunhild from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Old work.
Space battleship with the simplest and most sophisticated design.
There has never been a more beautiful spaceship than that.
This has nothing to do with the video but is in a similar vein:
Some of my favorite space ship designs are based on the appearance of animals, both real and fictional.
What if we built a Starship equal to Stargate's Jack O'Neill-class Asgard ship, but 7 to 10 times larger than the original size?
Interesting!
The Pride of Hiigara...
hey spacedock you need add gundam seed
ship for you
Excellent.
You didn't want to at least splash in an image of Atlantis from the Stargate TV series? It is both a city and a spaceship.
40K may be the best example. Imperial ships being Catholic Churches to Tau being sea creatures in design.
3:26 the key ship from halo be like
Yeah, that can make sense.
Personally, I think the Imperium's ship designs make sense both for their purpose and because the architectural style they're based on would be _very_ good at handling extreme forces and stress on and in the ship's body. Plus, would help support the weight when in atmosphere. It might also help absorb the kinetic energy from acceleration and deceleration, too.
When it comes to Far Future mankind and alien civilization you have think outside the box. Since the late 1970s I used Vomit, Mental insanity, nature gone mad and Lovecraft influenced images in my designs.
Yes, 32nd century starfleet took design cues from retro.modernist . Zahir Hadid, eero Sarrenin, Apple computer style
As a Star Citizen player some times the "rule of cool" trumps all other design factors. On the other hand when designing ships in another game like 'Empyrion" PVP/PVE survivability is at the top of the list, making most ships a battle brick with vital components spaced out and protected.
I have nothing but doubt when it comes to NASA and ship design, since they do the bare minimum on building due to cost and just roll the dice every time. A bag of cat litter sized rocks could destroy most of our space program but the vastness of space means it's a numbers game.
The Alliance capital ships in Firefly take this to an extreme, being basically just a set of modern skyscrapers on a platform with engines.
Artificial gravity would be perpendicular to thrust, which would defeat the purpose of a building-shaped ship.
@@Mark-in8ju The Firefly setting doesn't use thrust-based artificial gravity in the first place. And the Alliance ship design isn't functional, it's symbolic - taking their idea of urban civilisation and comfort out with them to the rest of the system.
@@Mark-in8ju The purpose of the building-shaped ship in this case was to be a ship that was also a bunch of buildings. The Dortmunder was not designed to be a *subtle* metaphor for Alliance culture.
@@Mark-in8junot really, since the outer facades of many buildings would work equally as well no matter which way the rooms inside are oriented, especially in the vacuum of space.
Yeah, Alliance cruisers are pretty arrogant vessels when you come right down to it.
That Holly Jencka art at the end is from the upcoming RPG "Torchship", an exploration game which combines soft sci-fi, Star Trek like space exploration with hard sci-fi concepts and dangers. Holly's an amazing artist and its incredible to have her on the team bringing it to life.
Hey there!
@@hoojiwana Great vid, and thank you for correcting your pronunciation of Yamato. Keep up the great work, mate!
Sounds interesting. Got a link?
This may seem like a stupid question, but it's actually not really: is that concept art for a video game RPG, or a book art for a tabletop RPG? I tried googling it and came up with nothing (because "torchship" is a common term in theoretical spacecraft design).
@@ArcaneAzmadi It's for a tabletop RPG! There's a website being made for it, but it's not finished! ...yet.
I love that imperium ships in 40k have battering rams on them. It's got to be the silliest thing to put on a space ship but damn does it look cool
Well given that 40k loves its glorious close combat, it makes sense. Can't just sit back and only shoot the enemy from a distance like a T'AU!
What's even cooler is 40K's void combat is surprisingly (relatively) more realistic than a lot of popular franchises. Void combat can initiate at lightsecond ranges, using relativistic kill weapons. A few thousand kilometres is considered within close range, although this can devolve to ramming enemy vessels with your ship's armoured prow. I love how it goes from the (relatively) hard sci fi method of firing projectiles traveling at a good chunk of the speed of light to the pre-gunpowder method of ramming enemy vessels.
@@outis7080 plus given how armored the hulls at the front are it is a valid tactic.
considering the size of an armada in 40k, it's not surprising if a smaller ship would run out of ammo before half the enemy armada is even destroyed
@@outis7080 On a smaller scale, even the fighter spacecraft are more realistic than most franchises. The Fury Interceptor, workhorse of the Imperial Navy, is as big as a Boeing 747 because weight is less of a concern in the void of space and can therefore carry more powerful armament and propulsion.
Their spacecraft cannot fight in atmosphere and their atmospheric craft cannot fight in space, because these are two separate environments that require their own specialized designs.
"The Eiffel Tower is damn near a spaceship already."
Well, I'm never going to look at the Eiffel Tower the same way ever again.
Using naval traditions makes a lot of sense since during the age of exploration sailing ships could take years for a one way journey even with lots of stops on the way (discovering strange new worlds and new civilisations) Even crossing just the Atlantic in the 1840's could take over 50 days while today it's 6-7 hours on an airliner.
So going back to look at how people coped on incredibly long voyages on tightly packed ships for up to 2 months at a time is a good basis for sci-fi ships that can travel between stars.
And also note how much naval traditions have influenced future vehicle terminology. Planes "navigate" despite not being boats, and have "port/starboard" sides instead of left/right. Tanks have "compartments" and "hatches" and a "hull", the top of of which is called a "deck".
@@zchen27 Port and starboard isn't really the same thing as left is left depending on where you are facing while port is the left side when facing the bow only.
Looking at the superstitions of sailors stuck on ships for long voyages, it's strange such superstitions don't make it into more space travel stories
Note alot naval words refure to things that can just as easily apply to space vehicles as sea ones.
Navy/naval/etc comes from navies (boat) which is believed to come from a word meaning float. Things in space float.
Ship? Comes from a word meaning hollow object (which a space ship is).
Vessel? Also hollow object.
Fleet? From a word meaning float.
Marine is one of the few that actually directly references water.
I like how in "Space above and beyond" the Human Capital ships were basically futuristic aircraft carriers, and the Hammerhead fighters drew inspiration from, well hammerheads.
I really liked S:A&B. I suspect this one isn't hoojiwana's cup of tea given a video in recent months calling out so many SciFi properties for basically regurgitating WWII … but in space! S:A&B was just about literally that, short-lived, and some of the premises for the episodes we did get were a little silly. No, a real military isn't going to take highly trained and specialized fighter pilots and order them to leave their fighters behind so they can be left behind as a consequence of the brass having to make the hard decisions about leaving troops to fend for themselves when the tactical situation means losing a lot more people if you try to get them out.
Despite its flaws, the show had a lot going for it at a time when TV Sci-Fi just didn't really address those topics well. The good guys are racists? How the war happened in the first place, who the alien enemy is, the politics involved in war, the toll it takes on the people fighting it, trauma, PTSD, addiction, military medical care, betrayal, discipline … that's a lot for a single season that's also basically cribbing its plotlines from WWII stories.
The show does not get enough recognition IMO.
@@knghtbrd It really was an amazing show. It needed a second season, the finale was wild!
Great show. The ide of carriers works because they emphasized boots on the ground. Taking a planet was not hovering over it in space and calling it victory. The ships were there to protect landing craft. Very much WWII Pacific theatre.
The OG Iserlohn Fortress is beautiful... It is like a castle inside a silver snow globe in space.
Also, we need a video about the ships from Legend of the Galactic Heroes universe ASAP, the Flagschiff Brünhild needs some love.
I second this
I third this.
Brunhild and Barbarossa my beloved, both need their respective vids. Heck why not Konigstiger too, I love the brutish look of its prow.
@@la_potat6065 The Perceval too... The delta-looking flagship is the most gorgeous ship in scifi IMO.
Absolutley!
Regarding brutalist designs, i can easily point to EVE Online's Caldari vessels for other examples, like the Rokh battleship which used to be referred to as the cinderblock or the Naga battlecruiser. It's fun to see how they've mixed brutalist with radiotower aesthetics for that faction.
I loved the fact that HMS Camden Lock from the British series Hyperdrive was basically the British Telecom Tower with engines attached!
I'm a bit surprised spacedock missed that one.
@@CanadianFabe As am I!
@@CanadianFabe I also think the Camden Lock would make the subject of a nice video here!
one influence I'm surprised you didn't bring up in the general ship inspirations is Sports cars, especially since those are in my opinion one of the main influences behind the Empire's ships in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. High ranking admirals get bespoke sculpted command ships that are part work of art and part political statement. This contrasted with the Free Planets Alliance with it's much more uniform and utilitarian ship designs.
something I haven't seen yet but might be cool would be classical/neoclassical architecture to evoke some of that high Roman Empire kind of vibes. like, turn the city of Venice into a spaceship