Traditional Kerbal architecture?

[nosirrbro]

Given that the only buildings we see in the stock game are the very utilitarian KSC buildings, I've been wondering what, traditionally, Kerbals would generally live in, and possibly a little about their culture.

 

Any ideas guys?

[Snark]

Stacks of PPD-10 Hitchhiker modules.

Yes, they're fairly modern.  Unfortunately, there are no surviving examples of traditional Kerbal architecture, as they had a distressing tendency to explode.

[lobe]

Probably the gutted hulls of retired and crashed spacecraft lying around the space center. Mission control probably sleeps at their desks and raise families in a shanty town of desk forts, same with the researchers at their respective buildings. The vehicle builders probably use the VAB as a highrise of sorts, looking at how the shelfs are placed. Kerbonauts though get the cream of the crop of housing: refited closets with a triple bunk bed to sleep on. But for the most part the rest of the population not directly involved with the space program a living in fuel tanks and fuselages of spent stages and crashed ships.

[Pthigrivi]

Kerbals, as it is well known, have always yearned for space exploration and began their earliest domiciles to mimic the primitive earthenware test-rockets they experimented and frequently maimed themselves with. 



Later, as materials and styles evolved traditional Kerbal architecture increased in scope and stature and began to incorporate simple portholes. Notice the early inclusion of the Deep Space Kraken deity motif forming the doorway.

In the modern era, with the proliferation of failed rocket parts strewn across the landscape forming the most readily available and economical building materials, Kerbals began to mold their homes into truly aspirational sanctuaries of glass, steel, and crumpled aluminum. 

Edited April 1, 2016 by Pthigrivi

[cantab]

Perhaps they lived in the trees, like monkeys.

[SchweinAero]

Wide pelvis and wobbly gait say they haven't stood on two legs for long. Lack of eyelids suggests a dark habitat. Underground tunnels all the way.

[nosirrbro]

1 minute ago, SchweinAero said:

Wide pelvis and wobbly gait say they haven't stood on two legs for long. Lack of eyelids suggests a dark habitat. Underground tunnels all the way.

Architectural knowledge is much faster than evolution, they would have made homes by that time.

[Tex]

1 hour ago, nosirrbro said:

Architectural knowledge is much faster than evolution, they would have made homes by that time.

Well, yes, but by logic of evolution, they evolved before gaining what little intelligence they have. Perhaps they evolved from burrowers to now living on the surface.

I personally picture them as furthering the modern and utilitarian styles of the KSC. Plenty of low-cost but low-maintenance and high-strength materials and glass. Smart stuff.

[Tw1]

 

Small houses?

Pseudo-brutalist?

 Agricultural-industrial? 

Deconstructivist? 

I like to count the mod contributed buildings from the old Kerbin City, and the more recent kerbinside packs as examples of a Kerbal architectural style too. That and the odd forms from the old space center. 

I don't think their big heads really facilitate tunnelling, though their big hands could be alright for digging. Maybe they evolved from cave dwellers? 

Edited April 2, 2016 by Tw1

[Pthigrivi]

19 hours ago, Maximus97 said:

I personally picture them as furthering the modern and utilitarian styles of the KSC. Plenty of low-cost but low-maintenance and high-strength materials and glass. Smart stuff.

This conventional assessment of modern Kerbal architecture, while apt enough in describing the economic and techtonic forces acting upon late-period utilitarian style-evolution, ignores the deep and lasting influence of mid-century space-age proto-retro-futuristic iconography, as well as overestimates Kerbals' basic aptitude for making sensible decisions.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Pthigrivi

[The Optimist]

I think when they're not running around, they get freeze-dried and stored in a vault beneath the Astronaut Complex, in a little plastic baggy.

[nosirrbro]

Ive been thinking that possibly it might be a sort of dutch style except stone instead of brick and with the only paint being white, except for a few stragglers, and flat rooves instead of curved pointy ones, along with the 'accent color' being blue, so most things that are ever colourful or arent part of the main structure would commonly be blue.

[lobe]

1 hour ago, nosirrbro said:

Ive been thinking that possibly it might be a sort of dutch style except stone instead of brick and with the only paint being white, except for a few stragglers, and flat rooves instead of curved pointy ones, along with the 'accent color' being blue, so most things that are ever colourful or arent part of the main structure would commonly be blue.

 

Now that I know what this thread is about, no way. Kerbals have little care for life or art, so a brutalist or utilitarian architecture is probably more likely than you think. I could imagine if humans were the same way small sky scrapers might have been used in the 13th century. So no gargoyles or artsy adornments, just pure flat, angular, and monochrome buildings. The farmers still live in fuel tanks though. Imagine if China, instead of launching east, launched west since 1960 at 100 launches/year. Housing soon becomes more of a surplus problem more than a demand. 

[FungusForge]

They are both great engineers, and exceptionally determined to explore everything. I figure that their early settlements weren't so much settlements, but something closer to Native American tribes, something that could be taken apart and mobilized at a moment's notice. Personally, I like to think that this nomadic culture, for the most part, could've lasted up to their space age. As for why the space centers are permanent settlements, I think that's because they realized, whether through experimentation or careful mathematics, that launching kerbed return vessels would be nigh impossible from a mobile platform. And, as something of a bonus, nomadic groups of kerbals moving across their world would explain their ability to so quickly recover returning kerbonauts. I imagine whatever other permanent structures that exist would be places like trading settlements or places for group leaders to discuss important matters (such as fledgling space programs).

More or less I figure that their structures would either be capable of rapid planned disassembly or be self-propelled, unless there were a need for it to be permanent.

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by FungusForge

[KSK]

Some of my headcanon on kerbal architecture starts a few paragraphs in. Basically very organic looking, lots of curves, lots of trees and green space. Traditional materials, at least for cladding, a bit more modern under the surface. 

Edited April 2, 2016 by KSK

[something]

Kerbals aren't native to Kerbin. They simply cannot be native to that planet. Even Kharak had cities before it was destroyed.

So yeah, I guess I have to send an expedition to the equatorial desert to find that all important guide stone....that would  -at least  - cast some light on their origin.

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by something