SPACE HABITAT R&D
TESSERAE: Exhibition Pavilion
Video courtesy of MIT Media Lab 2026
Learn more: media.mit.edu
The TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion connects the public to the future of life in space through an Earth-based interactive experience.
With TESSERAE, Aurelia’s autonomous, modular approach allows space infrastructure to self-assemble in orbit, bypassing the limitations of slow, dangerous, astronaut-led construction. The technology has already been successfully tested in space twice, proving its viability at prototype scale.
The TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion, Aurelia’s first foray into full-scale habitat design and fabrication, connects the public to the future of life in space through an Earth-based mock-up of a self-assembling space station module. This Earth-based model reflects active, ongoing work towards building the space twin for TESSERAE—Aurelia Institute’s first space habitat in orbit.
The team built a life-size, interactive space habitat model as part of our residency at the Autodesk Technology Center Boston, using advanced technologies in simulation, prototyping, and fabrication to develop the core architectural concept and interior design. The modular, reconfigurable skeleton for the Pavilion was selected as a finalist in the 3D Pioneers International Design Competition; the Pavilion has since been exhibited across the country and internationally, from MIT to the TED Vancouver mainstage, to the Seattle Museum of Flight.
On Exhibit
The Space Habitat Pavilion was designed as an interactive exhibit, intended to offer visitors an experience and a thought experiment on the challenges and opportunities of life in space.
The Space Habitat Pavilion had a soft-launch in summer 2024, coinciding with the ISS R&D Conference in Boston. Since then it has been on display in the following exhibit spaces:
Seattle Museum of Flight
Part of the “Home Beyond Earth” exhibit, which ran through January 2025 with over 8,000 visitors.
TED 2025
Hundreds of visitors explored the Pavilion in Vancouver during the annual TED Conference.
MIT Media Lab
On display in the lobby during MIT Space Week 2026, EmTech AI 2026, and more.
The Pavilion exhibited at The Museum of Flight in Seattle
A visiting group of students with Aurelia co-founder Sana Sharma in front of the Pavilion
The Pavilion at TED 2025 in Vancouver
The Pavilion in the lobby of the MIT Media Lab
Host the Space Habitat Pavilion in your exhibit space!
Explore the Interior
The interior of the TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion features a series of functional tiles and installations designed to take advantage of the unique affordances of microgravity.
The Green Vault protects, sustains, and highlights the importance of plants in zero-g environments. It maintains a variety of vegetables and herbs for both health and flavor.
Surrounding the Green Vault are two pantry tiles, using nature-inspired patterns of phyllotaxis like in sunflowers to produce elegant, tight spaces where food and other preparation materials can be tucked in and securely stored.
The Fermentation Station explores the value of microbes to provide shelf-stable, nutritious, and flavorful food off world. Developed in collaboration with CoFab Design, the tile maintains temperature and gas exchange for sourdoughs, pickles, and other fermented foods in the orb chambers. In between the two Fermentation Station tiles is a functional ‘HøtPøt’, or zero-g sous-vide boiler, developed by researcher Larissa Zhou.
A window is ringed by chambers where oxygen-producing algae can be used as part of habitat life support systems to generate breathable air. These green ‘bubbles’ can house algae and cyanobacteria, remove carbon dioxide from the air and generate breathable oxygen through photosynthesis.
Finally, sea anemone-inspired inflatables and a hand-knotted net (building on traditions from seafaring societies) provide ways to support guided movement, focused work, and relaxation in a large open volume.
Green Vault, protecting and showcasing a variety of vegetables and herbs for space
Fermentation station, using microbes to provide healthy, shelf-stable food to spacefaring humans
The TESSERAE Pavilion is an interactive way to engage with designers, researchers, and the public on the future of life in space, giving visitors an understanding of what it takes to design for microgravity.
Through open calls, invited collaborations, and design co-creation, the TESSERAE Pavilion offers a lens to imagine future meaningful lives in space, and communicate the reality of near-term, hands-on participation at this inflection moment in the space industry.
