Takaharu Igarashi
Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Purdue University
[BACKGROUND]
Driven by his fascination with the rich history and intricacies of our built environment and enthusiasm for space exploration and venturing into the unknown, Takaharu is avidly pursuing his journey toward realizing space architecture and extraterrestrial built environments by exploring the intersection of architectural design and aerospace engineering.
Takaharu is currently engaged in research at Purdue University in the area of systems engineering regarding aerospace systems, with a focus on system safety. His research has involved the development of a modelling framework to learn from construction system accidents so as to apply these lessons to future construction in space, an accomplishment which earned him a best student paper award.
Takaharu’s experience in designing space architecture started with his first-prize-winning graduation project, which focused on conceptualizing a settlement on Mars and its development history. He has also worked on a team design for a Martian habitat, which won first prize in a space architecture design competition. Additionally, he has contributed to the spatial configuration of a simulated lunar habitat, which serves as a reference baseline for a multi-physics habitat system model developed by the Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitat Institute (RETHi), a Purdue-led NASA Space Technology Research Institute (STRI).
His design experience also includes working on various other projects, such as contributing to the preliminary design and systems engineering process of a thermal vacuum testing facility, creating the conceptual design of an in-space toilet system submitted to NASA’s Lunar Loo Challenge, and developing the detailed conversion design of a ship container into a food storage and fermentation research facility at the UTokyo Memu Earth Lab in Taiki, Hokkaido, Japan.
Standing on a solid academic foundation in architecture and aerospace engineering, Takaharu aspires to leverage the principles of architectural design and systems engineering to make impactful contributions to the development of in-space infrastructure, the exploration of extraterrestrial urbanism, and the expansion of the anthroposphere beyond planet Earth.
[ACADEMIC]
M.S. Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, Purdue University (USA) — 2021
M.Eng. Architecture, The University of Tokyo (Japan) — 2019
B.Eng. Architecture, The University of Tokyo (Japan) — 2017
[FURTHER INFORMATION]
Design & Research Portfolio
Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitat Institute (RETHi), a NASA STRI
