File:TEDxHouston 2011 - Constance Adams - Space Architect.webm

English: Constance Adams is a specialist in high-performance architecture and design innovation, particularly in the area of architecture for human spaceflight. Currently leading research for Synthesis LLP, her work for NASA has included performing operations integration for the International Space Station, crew systems design and new module architecture. Adams' tenure as architectural consultant to NASA and to commercial space ventures has sensitized her to issues of human-machine interface, sustainable systems, the importance of biomimetic design and the need for new ways of addressing risk in the design and building professions.

Ms. Adams translated an early specialization in urban design and institutional architecture into a unique portfolio of designs for NASA's human spaceflight program, including two surface habitats for lunar/Mars exploration, a long-duration crew transit spacecraft, and vehicle architecture for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle, the larger Crew Transfer Vehicle and the Orbital Space Plane. She is one of the principal designers of the winning design for the Virgin Galactic hangar facility at New Mexico's Spaceport America. This work has been published in Metropolis, I.D., Wired, Popular Science, Architectural Record, Newsweek and other journals and has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale School of Architecture. She has won several NASA awards for her innovative technologies.

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TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Starting as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani,Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs.

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