Michael Morris

Presenting “5 Houses for Mars”, Morris will expound upon SEArch+’s innovative “live/work” structures to be built from in-situ resourced utilized (ISRU) materials obtained from the planets surface and atmosphere. These materials include: polyethylene, regolith (Martian concrete), and ice, and are designed to be robotically extracted, produced, and printed into habitats in advance of the first pioneering humans’ arrival on Mars. 

New York based architect and professor, Michael Morris is the co-founder of SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) and Morris Sato Studio with his late wife and partner, Yoshiko Sato. Morris graduated with degrees in environmental design from Parsons School of Design and in architecture from The Cooper Union. His widely recognized architecture integrates design with science and art.

As a contributing architect to the world’s most iconic space agency - NASA - Morris explores the possibility of building and inhabiting the extreme conditions of outer space. SEArch+ human centered approach to their award winning NASA habitats emerged alongside Morris and Sato’s 13 years of teaching space architecture studios and research labs at Columbia University and Pratt Institute.

In 2008, Columbia’s space research laboratory with Morris and Sato, designed the visionary costumes of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. In 2016, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, in New York presented MOTH, Morris’ led NASA / Pratt X-HAB project and prototype for a Mars Transit Habitat. In addition to testing and development of the 3-D printed Martian structures, SEArch+ is currently working with NASA's Langley Research Center (LRC) and United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) to realize their designs for future space exploration.

A Talk with Ed Keller

Ed Keller is the director of the Center for Transformative Media [CTM] at New York's Parsons School of Design, where he is an Associate Professor. CTM's mission is to promote the interdisciplinarity of innovative projects merging technology, the arts and social sciences. Keller works as a multimedia artist, designer, writer and musician. In collaboration with Carla Leitão, he founded AUM Studio, an office of architecture, media and design, working between Lisbon and New York on projects, new media installations, exhibitions and competitions.