Human-Centered Design in Space: The Future of Space Architecture & Living Beyond Earth

Susan Wise: Welcome to Stars Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research Sciences, brought to you by StarSciences.org, where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. I’m your host, Susan Wise, and joining us today is Adam Oswald, an architect and engineer who just launched a design startup working to bring human-centered design to space—and space engineering down to Earth.

I’d like to know a lot more about that. Welcome to the podcast, Adam. Nice to meet you.

Adam Oswald: Nice to meet you too, and thanks for having me.

Susan Wise: Tell us more about what you’re working on and what you’re doing to further the space industry.

Adam Oswald: Yeah, sure. I should probably start with a bit of background, because I’m obviously coming to space from a somewhat unusual place. I’ve been a fan of space my whole life, ever since I was a kid. I’m a little too young to have watched the Apollo landings, so my experience growing up was watching the shuttle program and seeing the ISS get built. The idea of people going to space and building things there has essentially been routine for my entire life.

I’ve had a lot of different interests throughout my life and went in many different directions. I studied music and political science and did a variety of things before eventually falling into architecture, which fit my skills and interests and satisfied my generalist tendencies.

A few years later, commercial space really started to take off. Suddenly there was a ton of excitement around the space industry, and I started feeling a sense of fear of missing out—but also that I might be in a unique position to contribute. So I pivoted and went back to school, this time focusing on human spaceflight, and got a job at Blue Origin, taking a more traditional engineering route. I did a mix of support engineering and some space architecture work for a little over three years.

Now, I’m working more explicitly at the intersection of architecture and aerospace. As you mentioned, I’m trying to bring the best of human-centered design from Earth into space, and bring the best of space engineering back down to Earth. We launched a firm called The Space Age. We work with mission-driven companies, institutions, and individual innovators to design and build high-performance architecture—whether on Earth or in space. That’s the core idea behind what we do.

Susan Wise: Do you mean structures, like places to live?

Adam Oswald: Yeah, you can think of it in two parts. This is the challenge of working in a space that doesn’t quite fit into either industry. One side is working with aerospace companies—helping with design concepts, human integration, and improving crew experience in space habitats. That could mean vehicles, space stations, or surface habitats.

The other side is that while people think of the space industry as things flying into space, most of it actually exists on Earth. There’s a real need for facilities—offices, manufacturing spaces, labs. To design those effectively, it helps to understand what’s going into space and what’s required.

Susan Wise: Right, that makes sense. A space habitat would obviously look very different from something you’d build here on Earth.

Adam Oswald: That’s right.

Susan Wise: What was one of your big “aha” moments during this journey?

Adam Oswald: I’ve had two big ones in the last ten years. The first was realizing that space architecture is actually a real job—it sounds like something from The Jetsons, but it’s a legitimate field with a community that’s been around for a couple of decades. Discovering that while working in architecture in LA pushed me toward the space industry.

The second “aha” moment has been more gradual—an accumulation of insights. The story I often tell is that space is hard. Sending people to space is even harder. Historically, we’ve designed systems with a “good enough” mentality. There’s a joke in engineering: anyone can design a bridge that stands up, but it takes an engineer to design one that barely stands up.

That mindset applies to human spaceflight. Humans are treated as a subsystem—a box plugged into larger systems. Accommodations are minimal. The systems keep you alive and mostly healthy, but just barely. There are real physical and psychological consequences, so we’ve compensated by selecting highly capable astronauts and training them extensively.

But it’s not human-centered—it’s more like forcing humans to adapt.

Now, as commercial space becomes more mainstream, we’re seeing more diverse people going to space, often for longer durations. As spaceflight becomes easier and cheaper, people will expect more from their environments. That’s where architects can add real value—helping shift from survival to thriving.

Susan Wise: That’s fascinating. It’s amazing how many industries connect to space—architecture, food production, medicine, and more.

Adam Oswald: Exactly. As living in space starts to resemble living on Earth, you’ll need all those things. We’re moving toward a future where space travel looks less like test pilots and more like commercial airlines. When that happens, expectations will change dramatically.

Susan Wise: What’s your biggest challenge?

Adam Oswald: It’s threading the needle between architecture and an industry that historically hasn’t needed it. Spaceflight has been about exploration—early astronauts were test pilots. Even now, space travel isn’t routine.

Architecture is about everyday life—homes, offices, and making daily experiences more comfortable and intuitive. There’s still a disconnect between those worlds.

Susan Wise: And you’re trying to bring them together.

Adam Oswald: Exactly. It’s starting to change, but slowly. A big part of my work is educational—explaining what space architecture is, how it solves problems, and why it matters.

Susan Wise: Do you create mockups or visual models to show people what this could look like?

Adam Oswald: Yes—mockups, renderings, models. But it’s still a tough case to make. Right now, the focus is on operational needs. So we have to demonstrate design’s value in terms of productivity, comfort, and human health. Until space travel becomes more accessible, we still need to make that case.

Susan Wise: Well, you’ll be ahead of the curve when that shift happens.

Adam Oswald: Exactly.

Susan Wise: What advice would you share with our listeners?

Adam Oswald: I often hear from students—either engineering students interested in habitats or architecture students interested in space. The advice I give comes from something I was told years ago: if you want to be a space architect, you have to choose between being an engineer who occasionally does architecture, or an architect who occasionally works on space projects.

That’s still largely true. At Blue Origin, about 90% of my work was traditional engineering, where my architecture background wasn’t necessary.

But things are starting to change. There’s an inflection point coming, and demand for designers will grow. It’s just a matter of when.

As a resource, I recommend the Space Architecture Technical Committee of the AIAA—spacearchitect.org. It has technical papers, news, and pathways into the field. And I’m always happy to talk with people directly.

Susan Wise: And you worked on the Artemis program as well?

Adam Oswald: Yes, about half my time at Blue Origin was working on that lander.

Susan Wise: Do you have a passion project you’d like to mention?

Adam Oswald: Right now, I’m pretty focused on space architecture. One major effort is a decadal survey for the field, similar to those used in planetary science and astronomy.

We’re not affiliated with the National Academies, but we’re borrowing their framework to assess the current state of space architecture and map out priorities for the next decade. It’s been about a two-and-a-half-year effort so far.

We’re hoping to culminate this in a book that captures where the field is, where it’s going, and the value it provides.

Susan Wise: That’s exciting. I’m glad you joined us—this platform is all about connection and collaboration. Thank you for sharing your story.

Adam Oswald: Thank you so much.

Susan Wise: Make sure you join us as we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and subscribe. Until next time, keep looking up. Thank you, Adam.