Roc H Biel imagines homeware of Mars to critique the space race
Roc H Biel presents Martian Relics, a collection of five domestic objects that examines how everyday life might evolve if humans settled on Mars. Comprising a plate, mirror, window, flower pot, and water filter, the project uses speculative design to explore how environmental conditions influence culture, memory, resource use, and human behavior. Constructed from rammed earth and recycled stainless steel, the objects were photographed in the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote, whose terrain closely resembles the Martian surface.
Rather than presenting a vision of future living on Mars, the collection reflects on contemporary attitudes toward Earth and the renewed interest in space colonization. Each object addresses a different aspect of human existence, considering how beliefs, identity, knowledge, nostalgia, and access to resources might be reshaped in an arid environment where materials and water are scarce. The project questions the idea of planetary escape by suggesting that the environmental challenges associated with Earth would ultimately define any future settlement elsewhere.
Slow Water, a multi-stage water filter in the language of a satellite | all images courtesy of Roc H Biel
Rammed earth and recycled steel shape Martian Relics collection
Material selection plays a central role in the project. Each object combines rammed earth, one of humanity’s oldest construction techniques, with recycled stainless steel recovered from industrial components such as valves, pressurant tanks, and sheet-metal offcuts. The pairing establishes a dialogue between low-tech construction methods and remnants of aerospace technology, suggesting a future in which discarded industrial materials become part of everyday domestic life. Recycling is presented not as an aesthetic choice, but as a practical necessity within conditions of limited resources.
The collection also investigates the material possibilities of rammed earth. Drawing on his background in industrial mould design, London-based designer Roc H Biel developed multipart moulds consisting of up to twelve individual components, engineered for a single-axis continuous pressing process that compacts the earth layer by layer. The technique enables a level of geometric precision and detail that is uncommon for rammed-earth construction while maintaining the material’s characteristic texture and mass.
water settles on the polished plate of Slow Water after its first stage of filtration; drinking, reframed as ritual
Five domestic objects reimagine everyday rituals for life on Mars
Each object explores a specific theme through its form and function. Gravity Well, a plate for keys and personal objects, considers how complex scientific knowledge might become embedded in everyday domestic rituals. Faded Signal, a mirror informed by the geometry of deep-space antennas, produces a softened reflection, shifting attention from projection toward reception. Eroded Horizon, inspired by Jørn Utzon’s Can Lis, frames a distant, desaturated view of the Mediterranean as a reflection on environmental loss and memory. Last Offering combines the typologies of a flower pot and memorial, imagining renewed reverence for the natural world through the figure of Gaia. Slow Water adopts the formal language of satellite technology to create a multi-stage water filter, emphasizing the finite nature of one of humanity’s most essential resources.
Every object was fabricated by the designer in his London studio and photographed on location in Lanzarote. Frequently used by the European Space Agency for astronaut training because of its volcanic landscape, the island provides a setting that reinforces the collection’s speculative context while remaining rooted in physical materials and handcrafted production. Produced as five unique objects, each measuring up to 22 centimeters and weighing up to four kilograms, Martian Relics uses domestic design to examine the relationship between material scarcity, environmental responsibility, and the future of everyday life.
Faded Signal, a table mirror modelled on the great antennas built to receive signals from space
the polished surface of Faded Signal returns a slightly blurred reflection of the Martian-like terrain
Last Offering holds the last dried flowers before Faded Signal and Slow Water
a flower-pot altar modeled on a headstone as an offering to Gaia in a future where nature is the scarcest thing
Last Offering sculpts a cross formed in negative space crowning the rammed-earth steel