  The last decades have seen a burst of experimental platforms reaching the
so-called strong-coupling regime, where quantum coherent effects dominate over
incoherent processes such as dissipation and thermalization. This has allowed
us to create highly nontrivial quantum states and put counterintuitive
quantum-mechanical effects to test beyond the wildest expectations of the
founding fathers of quantum physics. The strong-coupling regime comes with
certain challenges though: the need for a large isolation makes it difficult to
access the system for control or monitoring purposes. In this work we propose a
way to access such systems through an engineered environment that does not
compromise their strong-coupling effects. As a proof of principle, we apply the
approach to the photon-blockade effect present in nonlinear resonators, but
argue that the mechanism is quite universal. We also propose an architecture
based on superconducting circuits where the required unconventional environment
can be implemented, opening the way to the experimental analysis of our ideas.
