From the Series
For decades people have been speculating about a future where the moon might become suitable for human habitation. Spanish performance artist Alicia Framis initiated a project to explore the possibilities in more detail.
Her “Moon Life” project invited artists, architects and designers to create futuristic, radical, political but humane concepts suitable for a lunar environment.
United Nude were given a, very open, brief to design a shoe that could be worn in outer space. The result is a high-heeled shoe ready for the extreme temperatures and pressure of space.
At first glance the Flat Pack looks nothing like a shoe but United Nude aimed to create something that would also function in a gravity rich environment. Understanding that the further the journey, the more it will cost to transport the shoe by weight and volume, United Nude were sure to design something light and compact. Of course they wanted to also ensure that the shoe would still be fashionable.
The Flat Pack shoe is one that customers can assemble themselves with the shoe uppers being interchangeable and easily customisable. The base of the shoe is made from flat carbon fibre pieces, moulded foot-bed pieces and three-dimensional sole pieces that easily slot into each other. A thin span of wire on the sides joins all the different parts. The upper of the shoe consists of a lace with two leather pieces.
It takes about ten minutes to assemble each shoe which sound like a long time but when we’re living on the moon, we might have all the time in the world.
