ABOUT
SEArch+ LLC (Space Exploration Architecture) develops human supporting architecture for living and exploring space. Collaboratively working with leading aerospace and construction technology Corporations, SEArch+ builds on a nearly 2 decades-long association with multiple NASA centers and programs including Johnson Space Center Habitability Design Center, Langley Research Center, Kennedy Space Center, and the Game Changing Technology Development Program and has worked with aerospace industry in support of next generation habitat design.
Winners of 6 NASA Centennial Challenge Competitions, SEArch+ were the catalysts and founding members of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Moon 2 Mars Planetary Automated Construction Technology (MMPACT) Team. Grounded in scientific rigor and evidence-based design, SEArch+ works with a wide array of multidisciplinary scientific and engineering subject-matter experts to design from first principles of environment and materials, imagining what is possible within the boundaries of science. Committed to design for space which has applications for Earth-based sustainability, SEArch+ continues to collaborate both with technologists and environmental systems engineers on establishing common requirements for earth and space architecture.
PARTNERS BIOGRAPHIES
Christina Ciardullo
With an undergraduate background in astronomy and philosophy, and a Masters of Architecture with distinction from Columbia University, Christina bridges a career between practice and research at the intersection of the natural sciences and the built environment, designing for a sustainable future for Earth and Space.
She has worked in design positions ranging from New York City Planning, to NASA’s Habitability Design Center, to the award winning firms of Ennead Architects, Foster+Partners, and LAVA with leading roles on projects such as the Shanghai Astronomy Museum (2021), the German EXPO Pavilion (2020), and the Far Rockaway Development project winning Leading Innovation in Resilient Development (2013). Supported with a NASA Consortium Grant, she was the 2015/2016 Carnegie Mellon University Anna Kalla Fellow teaching interdisciplinary studios on closed loop systems, and the 2016 Buckminster Fuller Institute Fellow for Design Science. In her work with Yale CEA, Christina has collaborated with the United Nations Environment Program on thought leadership in Urban Agriculture, Embodied and Operational Carbon of Building Materials, and publications including the 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. Committed to work in space that supports sustainable development on Earth, she lectures and publishes on the relationship between energy and resource efficient practice in space and earth. Her current PhD work focuses on the integration of vegetation in and on buildings towards more sustainable cities.
Michael Morris
Michael Morris is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Architecture and Parsons School of Design Environmental Design and Fulbright recipient. With his late partner-and- wife Yoshiko Sato, Morris founded the New York City based Morris Sato Studio Architecture in 1996 and the Space Exploration Architecture (SEARC) in 2006. Morris Sato Studio’s multi-disciplinary architecture, art and science collaborations have garnered the firm international commissions and recognition.
Concurrent to their practice, Morris (and Sato) have continuously held positions in leading university’s including their alma mater’s Cooper Union, Harvard, and Parsons, co-founding Space Studio’s I-X at Columbia University and Pratt Institute. Awarded the NASA X-Hab Innovation Grants in 2016 and 2017, Morris and Rebeccah Pailes–Friedman with Melodie Yashar worked with Pratt architecture and industrial design students to define and prototype Mars transit and surface habitats.In 2016, the team’s Mars transit habitat project- MOTH was exhibited at the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum and featured in Scientific America.
Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman
Working at the intersection of design and technology, Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman is an expert in human interaction, wearable products and smart textiles. With a background in performance apparel, product design and interior architecture, she is a pioneering researcher in design methodologies and smart materials, and is Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. She is the author of Smart Textiles for Designers: Inventing the Future of Fabrics; has published many articles; and speaks internationally on design, innovation and the future.
Rebeccah brings over 25 years of corporate designing experience in residential interior design, medical, wearable and consumer product design and has held positions as Design Director for Fila, Champion and Nike. She is founder of Interwoven Design Group, an interdisciplinary design consulting practice that creates innovative, thoughtful and efficient products, and one of the founding partners in SEArch+, where she works to apply her design theories and practice to extraterrestrial environments. She was named one of IDSA’s (Industrial Design Society of America) 20/20 for both her work promoting diversity in design and Interwoven’s design work on the APEX exosuit which was recognized with a SPARK Platinum Design Award.
