“The Death Star really should diversify its energy supply with solar photovoltaics at the very least. “Having a reactor core reliant on fossil fuels generates a lot of waste byproduct that is going to contribute to landfill excess in the universe,” he said. Arup Associate Russell Fortmeyer points out the Death Star’s egregious lack of sustainability. (Seriously, vertical food farms have been around for generations.) All the communal spaces have been downsized due to an over emphasis on unproven technology.”Įngineers got even rougher than the architects. No educational spaces, no decent public places and extremely limited access to fresh produce. “If you look at the accommodation wings, there is little room for troopers and their families. These include, among many other things, limited amenities for stormtroopers and other employees, defense vulnerabilities, severe aesthetic disappointments, and a real lack of creativity when it comes to disposal of waste heat.Īrchitect Cameron Sinclair, founder of Small Works, a firm that specializes in building solutions in post disaster zones and underserved communities, calls it “yet another techno-driven ego play by the Empire,” primarily blaming a lack of community engagement during the building’s conceptual phase. That’s not just because of the Death Star’s evil connotations, but due to obvious design flaws. And when WIRED asked a bunch of designers, architects, and other professionals for their assessments, most were not kind.

Point is, the drawings of the planet-killing not-a-moon may look like gobbledygook to you, but to a trained designer, they’re fair game for criticism. In advance of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a new book- Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual-lays bare the plans for the station that, presumably, get stolen by rebels, transmitted to Princess Leia, secreted in an R2 unit on board the Rand Ecliptic, and eventually made possible the Death Star’s destruction. Despite its reputation as a symbol of fear and oppression and its confounding vulnerability to proton torpedoes, the Death Star continues to be a subject of endless fascination-especially in the design world.

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