Perhaps now more than ever before, we are all aware of the built environment that surrounds us, and of the impacts it has on the health of individuals, communities, and the planet. The Architecture of Place series brings together the established and emerging voices working to create a better built future.
From December 2024 through February 2025, the ICAA, INTBAU, and The King's Foundation will co-host The Architecture of Place: In Conversation with..., a series of interviews featuring three architects and scholars from different backgrounds and points of view: John Smylie, Tiffany Abernathy, and Dr. Patricia Canelas. Over the three-part series, each speaker will have the chance to play the role of both interviewer and interviewee. In each installment, one of the three architects will be interviewed by one of the others about the influences, experiences, and projects that have led to their design perspective on the architecture of place. At the end of each session, students from partnering university departments will pose additional questions to the speakers, followed by an open Q&A with attendees.
The programs are free and open for public registration, and recorded versions of the programs will be made available to all.
In this iteration of the series, Minty Sainsbury will interview Safoura Zahedi about her design work and background.
Born in Japan and raised in Iran and Canada, Zahedi is an artist, architect, educator, and geometry expert currently living and working in Toronto. She brings a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of geometry and how it can be used as a spiritual design tool to create spaces and artworks that encourage curiosity, meditation, and connection.
In 2022, Zahedi travelled to 17 countries and over 40 cities to study geometric patterns in art and architecture across major historic Islamic dynasties. Islamic design often uses repeating geometric patterns that invoke natural forms to gesture at the multiplicity within universal oneness. Bringing together her cultural heritage and western design education, Zahedi's work engages with both time-honoured crafts and digital technologies to reflect on the relationship between spirituality and materiality in an effort to create spatial experiences that bring people into closer communion with themselves and others.