How an architecture degree can take your work to outer space

Everyone’s got a childhood obsession.

Whether it’s collecting rocks, making art, or playing games, some of these passions follow us into adulthood, where, if you’re lucky, you could make a career out of being a geologist, artist, or game developer.

In Ana Guerrero’s case, her love for space and her eventual pursuit of an architecture degree might not add up at first glance, but spoiler alert: it does.

At 16, Guerrero took three flights from Barcelona to Alabama to participate in the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy. Source: Ana Guerrero

From first-time solo flyer to dancing the Macarena under G-force

There’s no one moment that Guerrero recalls falling in love with space; it was simply something always within her, and she never doubted its presence in her life.

So when the chance to join the Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy, a week-long science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and space immersion camp, came, she jumped at the opportunity.

At 16, Guerrero took her first solo trip abroad, hopping on three planes to get from Barcelona to Huntsville, Alabama, where the US Space and Rocket Centre – the largest space museum in the world – was found.

Together with over 200 16- to 18-year-olds worldwide, Guerrero experienced the breadth of what space camp offered, including model rocket-building challenges and physical challenges that tested the participants’ resilience.

The Honeywell Leadership Challenge Academy is an annual week-long science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and space immersion camp. Source: Ana Guerrero

The most shocking of all, however, was taking a shot at the G-Force Accelerator simulator.

“I went in and experienced 3Gs, and we decided to try dancing the Macarena just to see how the force feels compared to when you’re not under it,” shares Guerrero.

And when the one week came to a close, Guerrero’s love for space grew infinitely more, enough for her to begin looking to pursue her studies in it.

Her plan? An aerospace engineering degree.

“I love space because it’s a lot of wondering what might be there and how everything works with our perspective,” says Guerrero. “We’ve got the whole universe out there for us, but we don’t get to see or to feel everything, so we need to figure out how everything works with what we currently know. And I also love travelling, so I feel like there’s that exploration bit to it too.” 

Pursuing an architecture degree might not have been Guerrero’s first choice, but despite its challenges, it’s been pretty fulfilling. Source: Ana Guerrero

One architecture degree, three ways of learning

Born and raised in the predominantly sunny climate of Barcelona, Guerrero admits to easily being affected by the weather.

Unfortunately for her plans to pursue an aerospace engineering degree, her visit to a university’s School of Engineering happened on a cloudy, gloomy day. The same couldn’t be said when she visited UIC Barcelona’s School of Architecture, where the skies were as blue as can be without a cloud in sight.

Bolstered by the weather, her growing interest in architecture, which was fostered through a close friend’s own passion, and eventually obtaining a scholarship for an architecture degree, Guerrero decided to follow this new path. 

It was difficult, to say the least.

“An architecture degree is hard, not because, in my opinion, of the complexity of what you’re learning, but because you need to develop a lot of resilience,” shares Guerrero. “It’s more subjective than I thought, and when you work with subjectivity or with someone’s opinion and not numbers, it’s difficult.”

For Guerrero, the biggest challenge was simply not knowing if what she was doing was good or not.

“There were times that I was proud of what I was delivering in my project, but then the teacher didn’t like it at all, and then the grade you get doesn’t match the work you’ve done,” she says.

That’s not to say it’s all rough when pursuing a degree in architecture – there’s a positive, eye-opening part to it too. 

“The best part about studying architecture is the point of view you learn to see,” shares Guerrero. “At the end of the day, you see things from a different perspective because they teach you how to look at things differently.”

And the thing with architecture is that it’s everywhere in the world, which means it makes sense to learn beyond your comfort zone too. 

Guerrero enhanced her architecture degree with two different exchange programmes. Source: Ana Guerrero

Guerrero’s journey took her to Italy’s Politecnico di Torino and Argentina’s Universidad de Belgrano, where each university and city showed her a different aspect of what pursuing an architecture degree really means.

The biggest differences? Guerrero’s studies abroad featured more team-based projects than her programme back in Spain did, requiring students to put their heads together to tackle real-world issues. 

“I feel that it is very important to know how to work in a team, especially when you are in your professional life and you need to work as a team because nobody works on their own,” she says.

On top of that, there were other subtle things she picked up too. In Italy, Guerrero worked and defended her projects in Italian – a language she had to pick up within a semester (that’s four months) of being there.

In Argentina, she found an opportunity to propose a final year thesis that wouldn’t have been possible if she were in Spain: putting a piece of architecture on the moon.

Had Guerrero not studied abroad in Argentina for her architecture degree, she might not have had the chance to pursue a final year thesis she was actually passionate about. Source: Ana Guerrero

How to take your architecture degree into space

The thing about a final year architecture thesis in Spain is that most schools are strict with their topics.

“You’re given an area of the city to observe, which, usually every year the town hall focuses on a place which needs to be improved, so the school knows this and proposes the same area to the students,” shares Guerrero. “This way, you can go to the place, you can have a look, you can feel what is happening. And you see what the problems are and what needs to improve, so you propose that, and that’s your project.”

Again, most of these problems are found in the surroundings, not 384,400 kilometres away on a different planet.

“In Argentina, I proposed to place this industrial building turned into an agricultural school onto the moon,” says Guerrero. “The goal was to understand how architecture on Earth needs to adapt to be placed on another surface, on another planet, so we can understand the differences between buildings here and buildings out there.”

“I knew it was a difficult topic to accept because nobody knew much about it, but I was prepared with a good pitch with good arguments and reasons to defend why I wanted to do that.”

The stars aligned for Guerrero when she secured an internship with SAGA Space Architects during her architecture degree. Source: Ana Guerrero

It also helped that by that point in her studies, Guerrero was interning with SAGA Space Architects, a Danish architecture and design firm specialising in creating sustainable and human-centred habitats for future space travellers.

“I told my professor that whatever they couldn’t help me with, I can work on it with SAGA so that we can still work on something professional or high-level,” she explains. “In the end, they agreed, and I also have to thank the professor who agreed because she had never guided such a topic before, but she was so excited to help me.”

At the end of the day, Guerrero successfully graduated with her architecture degree in hand, and after a few months of taking a break, she started her official work as an architect at SAGA.

“I remember telling my mom, I am procrastinating, but they pay me for this,” laughs Guerrero. “Because for me, procrastinating was looking at space news and looking about space architecture, and I was being paid for that, to get these ideas and gather information about what was happening in the scene at that time, and I felt so happy that I was doing what I love.”

Just because you have an architecture degree doesn’t mean you have to be cooped up drawing out plans all the time. Here’s Guerrero during her work as a Resident Astronomer in a space observatory in Spain. Source: Ana Guerrero

With love, from Earth

A dream job is still a job, and Guerrero understands that keenly, having moved on from SAGA to being a Resident Astronomer at Observatori Astronòmic Albanyà, an architect with Green Building Council España, and most recently, a freelance science communicator.

“I have learned that the three pillars that fulfil me in my professional life are creativity, communication, and technicality,” she says.

That said, Guerrero is exploring a new and personal venture: TURTLE – a nod to the giant turtle on which the world stands in Sir Terry Pratchett’s comic fantasy book series “Discworld.”

Many myths describe that the world stands on the back of a giant turtle. Source: Ana Guerrero

There, her passion for space technologies and astronomy is brought to life through science communication. In Guerrero’s words, it is the most crucial part in making space more accessible to everyone and sharing the real importance and impact space exploration has on our daily lives.

Most of Guerrero’s current work revolves around providing school workshops in collaboration with AulaSputnik, talking about satellites, rockets, space, and architecture – baby steps towards something much bigger in the future, but as famously said by astronaut Neil Armstrong, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

But Guerrero’s not just stopping there. 

Still think an architecture degree only leads to creating spaces on earth? Think again. Source: Ana Guerrero

Now, she’s joined the International Space University’s Space Studies Programme in South Korea. This intensive eight-week programme explores various space disciplines and offers hands-on education through workshops and professional visits – a unique curriculum designed specifically for professionals starting or changing direction in their space careers, just like Guerrero. 

“What I feel I’m going to get out of this programme for sure is confidence,” she says. “Then whatever else that is coming would be completely welcome; a lot of different people will meet there for the same purpose, and I feel that will be very, very enriching.”

And if you’ve gotten this far into the article and want to help Guerrero’s dreams of spreading her love and knowledge for space, consider donating to her GoFundMe here.