Students' designs aim high

The challenge of designing a futuristic hotel in outer space has stretched to the limits the skills of students at Germany's Darmstadt Technical University.

The students were challenged by the German Association for Air and Space Travel (DGLR) to create a space hotel that could accommodate about 220 guests and 80 staff. The brief required that certain rooms such as sleeping quarters and restaurants, should have simulated gravity while other areas should offer weightlessness.

The winner, "Space on Line", (pictured) was designed by four students and featured cushioned "living globes" for the guests to sleep in. Rachid Amekrane, from the DGLR, said the model was technically so good and architecturally so detailed that it could be possible to create it one day.

The 17 designs are on display in Hamburg.