The Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) is a nonprofit academic research and planning organization at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

. It was founded in 1987 after an endowment gift provided by Japanese industrialist

Ryōichi Sasakawa was a Japanese suspected war criminal, businessman, far-right politician, and philanthropist. He was born in Minoh, Osaka. In the 1930s and during the Second World War he was active both in finance and in politics, actively supporting the Japane ...

. The Institute supports the world's first and only Space Architecture program, which focuses on the development of habitats and structures in extreme environments on Earth, other planets, and outer space.

History

SICSA's foundations were established by James Calaway, Guillermo Trotti, and Larry Bell after founding private space startups

Space Industries Incorporated Space Industries Incorporated was a company formed in the 1980s for the purpose of building a privately owned space station, which was to be called the Industrial Space Facility (ISF). At the time, the idea of private spaceflight, private Space expl ...

and Bell & Trotti, Inc. Because the idea of private sector space research and development was at the time unheard of, the organization was formally realized by the help of Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation Chairman

, who provided a $3 million dollar endowment to kick-start the schools programs. This was the largest foreign gift ever received by the University of Houston and the organization was renamed from The Center for Experimental Architecture to the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture in his honor. In 2003, its multidisciplinary Masters of Space Architecture degree program was designated by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board as a Masters of Science "STEM degree" instead of a Masters of Arts.

Research

SICSA’s central mission is providing research and education programs to advance peaceful and beneficial uses of space and space technologies. The program is growing and partnering with other universities and aerospace companies. It is presently involved in conceptual design of the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Field and working with

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

on Mars Transit Habitat designs. The faculty is mostly composed of architects and former or current

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

employees.

Facilities

Despite the department's re-location to the

Cullen College of Engineering Cullen may refer to: Places Canada *Cullen, Saskatchewan, a former hamlet in Benson No. 35 Rural Municipality Ireland *Cullen, County Cork, a village near Boherbue, County Cork *Cullen, County Tipperary, a small village in County Tipperary Scotl ...

at the University of Houston in 2014, SICSA's facility remains within the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture's main building designed by

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

. The School was founded in Houston because of its proximity to NASA's Johnson Space Center and other aerospace industries.

References

External links

* ** {{Coord, 29, 43, 29, N, 95, 20, 33, W, type:landmark_scale:10000_region:US, display=title University of Houston campus