Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Montes.

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

In this installment, we're talking with a design professional who hasn't left the profession by definition but pivoted from conventional, terrestrial architecture to a whole new environment: Jeffrey Montes is a Space architect and technologist with a keen interest in designing ever-better extraterrestrial habitats that, one day, will shelter human missions.

Jeffrey currently works at Blue Origin as Senior Space Architect. He is also a research fellow at Open Lunar Foundation and has previously been a driving force behind the widely published and NASA Centennial Challenge-winning proposal for a Martian habitat, Marsha.

Where did you study architecture?

Northeastern University for undergraduate, Columbia University for graduate

Did you practice architecture? Please describe that work experience.

Not counting the 18 months of co-ops I did while at Northeastern, I worked for 1 year and 8 months in terrestrial architecture. It was at a small "design engineering" firm in NYC that did bespoke structures (sculptures, staircases), facades (curtain walls), and some 3D printing research. The most interesting thing I worked on there was making a script that could generate the structural connections in a free-form grid shell. The received thesis was that because a printer does not care about part commonality, every part could be unique, liberating the form to be more organic. I printed all the parts on a continuous fiber machine and gained a good grasp of force flow in structures. That was very fun to work on.

At what point in your life did you decide to pursue architecture?

As a kid, I had this idea that I was going to be an architect. It was based on a naive intuition about it being on the edges of objectivity and subjectivity that turned out to 100% true. Still, I did that funny thing a lot of high school juniors do were you look at a list of majors on The Princeton Review and say, "Oh, that sounds nice." Other candidate majors included anthropology, photojournalism, and music. Architecture felt like the best idea. There were times when I felt pulled away from it, though. For my minor in philosophy, I wrote lots of short papers and was so happy that conclusions could 'follow' from premises yet still leave room for creativity. I was a little ambivalent about architecture for a couple of years, but then Northeastern's program got more real. Once I was exposed to tectonics, I was hooked back in.

Design concept video of Marsha. Credit: SpaceFactory Inc.

When did you decide to stop pursuing architecture in the conventional sense? Why?

To add some nuance to the question, I have not stopped practicing architecture but I did dramatically change the kind of architecture I practice. It's complicated because the differences between terrestrial architecture and Space architecture can be profound at times but trivial at others. Still, I absolutely occupy an architect's role.

The differences between terrestrial architecture and Space architecture can be profound at times but trivial at others.

My shift started at Columbia when I had the opportunity to take a Space design studio. The magic of school is that you give yourself license to be outside of the world, so you can think about things for extended periods of time without worrying about their utility. In undergrad, I had not appreciated how privileged of an opportunity this was, but I did in grad school, and I think this helped me invent myself and take a very unusual path. Discovering Space architecture was an experience of the technological sublime. I was hooked on the concept and its potential to deliver the sublime. Living outside of Earth produces so many interesting questions.

Describe your current profession.

I'm a Space architect, which the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) defines as "the theory and practice of designing and building inhabited environments for use in Space." Sounds familiar, right?

In practice, there are important differences. It's very difficult to send anything into Space for reasons that are based in physics and even more difficult to create closed environments that keep people alive and can grow. You end up with teams devoted to what might seem like insignificant components. It's in this atmosphere that I operate as an architect who is reformulating the basic goodness of architecture in, between, and through other systems and constraints. I'm constantly trying to outsmart the process: how do I design something that is ambitious, novel, and beautiful as architecture and likely to survive the onslaught of engineering optimization?

The most humbling thing about my job is that I am reaping the rewards not just of my own passion and accomplishments but of the uphill struggles that Space architects have been having for decades. This position would not have come about without sustained advocacy for the role of the architect in aerospace. Kudos to Blue Origin for being the first to embrace this role wholeheartedly. I occupy a central position in our human Spaceflight efforts.

What skills did you gain from architecture school, or working in the architecture industry, that have contributed to your success in your current career?

All the skills have contributed. I still maintain that an architectural education is one of the most well-rounded and relevant to the world. It is a foundational education in design and visual culture, digital and mechanical literacy, socio-eco-political issues, communication, and even leadership.

I occupy a central position in our human Spaceflight efforts.

Of all the skills, I identify two as my favorites. The first is being able to change between modes of thinking via changes in modes of making. Switching between hand-drawing, physical models, narrative writing, 2D CAD, 3D CAD, logical operations, and conversation means you rarely get creatively stuck. I would recommend architects build up their tool chest for this reason. Tool use is how we humans manipulate reality, understand problems, and create, after all.

The second is a tempered, editorial rigor. Tempered, editorial rigor means you can iterate blindly — without judgment — but not for so long that you lose your sight (lose your vision). It means you don't need to explore every possible design, you just need enough exploration to understand the boundaries of that matrix of possibilities. It means you can 'problem-solve' without losing your ability to envision.

Do you have an interest in returning to terrestrial architecture?

My wife is a terrestrial architect, so it is never far away. I like to think that one day, I will design and build a sanctuary where I can have a strong bond with my natural context. After a career in Space architecture, designing for impossibly hostile environments, I bet it will be a huge relief and a 'coming-home' moment.