A city on the moon

This city on the moon – outside of time – was created by Jean Hanemian in 1969. It abides to a particularly constricting lunar context : no less than 300° of temperature difference between light and darkness (+125° down to – 175°), only one sixth of the force of gravity found on earth, meteorite storms and a week lasting 14 days…

In contrast to the traditional science-fiction image of lunar cities, which are built under a transparent dome, the one designed in 1969 by Jean Hanemian in partnership with the architects Michel Clarion and Georges Bauret is sited in a natural crater for protection from the low sweeping trajectory of meteorites. Inside this crater starting from a first LEM unit the city consists of clusters of villages. The entire village sites are covered by a flat roof consisting of photo-voltaic panels and mirrored sunray receptors. The sun’s energy is thus collected and stocked in a way that was completely innovative nearly fifty years ago. This arrangement means that the city and its component parts are always under protection from the elements and from the great differences of temperature. Also the circadian rhythm of Earth is recreated: a twenty-four hour day and alternation of night and day.

The “City on the Moon” project was developed in collaboration with research scientists at the Meudon Observatory Audoin Dolffuss, M. Focas and Chriet Titulaer, the Heliotechnic Laboratory of Marseille and structural engineer André Fangeat de Saint Fons. It immediately aroused great interest in the media. The Bogdanoff brothers featured it in their television programme and Dr Chriet Titulaer included Jean Hanemian’s “City in the Moon” in his book ‘De mens in het Heelal’ (Man in Space). Various other institutions took an interest in it such as the CNES (National Centre for Spatial Study) and it found a place in the book-size catalogue of the 1985 SAD (National Exhibition of Interior Decorators). At the request of the CNES, the lunar city was presented in 1989 in the theater in Amboise where it created quite a stir.