Vision Statement
Much is made of “The Overview Effect,” the experience of oneness that befalls astronauts who see Earth as a whole and of the impact of the “Blue Marble” photograph on the nascent environmental movement. I don’t doubt these narratives. If they weren’t already environmentalists, people who spend their time studying Space often become environmentalists. This is because among the excitement of discovery is the disquieting truth that on other planets we have found mountains, volcanoes, canyons, dunes, rivers, oceans, atmospheres, storms, glaciers, and even a balmy 24-hr day, yet Earth remains the only place that could pass as a complete home.
Humans have sometimes concluded that the universe seemed fine-tuned for them, but the truth is that the universe turned out in many ways and all, except one, kill us. Our Earthliness is logically, chemically, and even spiritually inescapable. It is sometimes said that the human brain is more complex than the universe it sits in. Working in the Space indsutry formed the suspicion in me that perhaps the inner vastness of Earth is greater then the spatial vastness of Space. I support venturing beyond Earth. The ultimate irony is that an ailing planet will not support that venture.
Our connection to Nature's signals, flows, and cycles is what made us human and yet both are threatened by the destabilization of planetary systems and the proliferation of digital systems. Together, they create a compensatory and intensifying hunger for the embodied, spatial, tactile, and beautiful. Indeed, these have become buzzwords of digital life precisely because the real thing is receding. There is a growing imperative to rediscover our humanity through sensory contact with the physical world, especially living landscapes.
Most of us spend about 90% of our lives indoors. Architecture is a technology in direct contact with our changing environment that determines what we let in, what we keep out, and what we frame for interaction. From conception to completion, countless decisions also affect how architecture changes its surroundings. It can be deliberate and visionary about the future it models. No future is there when a landscape is flattened to accommodate something preconceived. A future is there when our contributions are modeled on reciprocity, the principle of “a give for every take” that created our amesome world.
On our world, our species is singular in its ambition and awareness. In our universe, our world is singular in its capacity to nourish us. To continue on in both directions, outward and inward, we need tangible models of action like architecture. We need different systems.
Jeffrey Montes
Seattle, WA
Much is made of “The Overview Effect,” the experience of oneness that befalls astronauts who see Earth as a whole and of the impact of the “Blue Marble” photograph on the nascent environmental movement. I don’t doubt these narratives. If they weren’t already environmentalists, people who spend their time studying Space often become environmentalists. This is because among the excitement of discovery is the disquieting truth that on other planets we have found mountains, volcanoes, canyons, dunes, rivers, oceans, atmospheres, storms, glaciers, and even a balmy 24-hr day, yet Earth remains the only place that could pass as a complete home.
Humans have sometimes concluded that the universe seemed fine-tuned for them, but the truth is that the universe turned out in many ways and all, except one, kill us. Our Earthliness is logically, chemically, and even spiritually inescapable. It is sometimes said that the human brain is more complex than the universe it sits in. Working in the Space indsutry formed the suspicion in me that perhaps the inner vastness of Earth is greater then the spatial vastness of Space. I support venturing beyond Earth. The ultimate irony is that an ailing planet will not support that venture.
Our connection to Nature's signals, flows, and cycles is what made us human and yet both are threatened by the destabilization of planetary systems and the proliferation of digital systems. Together, they create a compensatory and intensifying hunger for the embodied, spatial, tactile, and beautiful. Indeed, these have become buzzwords of digital life precisely because the real thing is receding. There is a growing imperative to rediscover our humanity through sensory contact with the physical world, especially living landscapes.
Most of us spend about 90% of our lives indoors. Architecture is a technology in direct contact with our changing environment that determines what we let in, what we keep out, and what we frame for interaction. From conception to completion, countless decisions also affect how architecture changes its surroundings. It can be deliberate and visionary about the future it models. No future is there when a landscape is flattened to accommodate something preconceived. A future is there when our contributions are modeled on reciprocity, the principle of “a give for every take” that created our amesome world.
On our world, our species is singular in its ambition and awareness. In our universe, our world is singular in its capacity to nourish us. To continue on in both directions, outward and inward, we need tangible models of action like architecture. We need different systems.
Jeffrey Montes
Seattle, WA
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