For all the persons on board Noah’s Ark it was not only impossible to leave their floating world – there was no need either. After all, their entire world was incorporated in the ark. Spaceships for intergalactic journeys also possess this property: in order to offer the people and animals on board a life similar to that on earth during their spaceflights, they have been designed as completely autarkic worlds. We come across all aspects of life on board, varying from networks, fabrics, bodies, herds and skins, to life, reproduction and death.

"The notion of ‘exclusion’ from the world outside the capsule is replaced by the notion of inclusion in the unusual object of the world’s complexity"

A manifestation like this does not imply that the object is part of a capsular society in extremis, but conversely offers an alternative for hypercomfort and isolation inside the usual capsules. The notion of ‘exclusion’ from the world outside the capsule is replaced by the notion of inclusion in the unusual object of the world’s complexit. Thus the object becomes a microcosmos in which all aspects of life are represented. Buildings designed according to this principle might be called laboratories of life. They are present in the world as heterotopies, but contain a complete parallel world as well.

Interaction takes place between the inside and the outside world in strategic places. The skin is thus given a hybrid function: on the one hand it excludes the outside world, on the other it keeps the inside world together. The skin is an interface. Not only the safe everyday things of life are admitted, but also the adventurous unknown aspects. The microcosmos is a living body.

"The microcosmos is a living body"