Melodie Yashar

Melodie Yashar is a space architect, technologist, and researcher. She is the founder of AENARA, a practice developing technologies to autonomously build off-world habitats, which in the near term redefine construction paradigms on Earth. In prior roles, Melodie was the VP of Building Design and Performance at ICON, a technology company focused on large-scale additive manufacturing for Earth and in space. Collaborating across technology and construction teams, her department supported the design and construction of dignified and resilient terrestrial housing solutions in addition to supporting the development of ICON’s off-world construction systems. As a space architect, Melodie played a lead role in the design and construction of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), a 3D-printed analog at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (2023). Prior to ICON Melodie was a Senior Research Associate with the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames, as well as a co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch+), a research group developing human-supporting designs for space exploration. Melodie teaches undergraduate and graduate design studios at Art Center College of Design. She obtained a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a Master of Human-Computer Interaction from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. She is the Vice Chair of AIAA’s Space Architecture Technical Committee and a member of ASCE’S Aerospace Division Executive Committee.