Mohsen Mostafavi

Biography

Mohsen Mostafavi is an Iranian-born architect, educator, and scholar, born in Isfahan in 1954. He studied architecture at the Architectural Association (AA) in London, graduating with a diploma in 1976, and subsequently conducted postgraduate research on counter-Reformation urban history at the University of Essex (1976–1981) and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (1981–1984). He began his academic career as a tutor at the AA under Dalibor Vesely before joining Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where he directed the Master of Architecture I Program from 1992 to 1995. He returned to the AA as Chairman from 1995 to 2004, a nine-year tenure during which he significantly reshaped the school's international standing. He served as Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University (2004–2008), before becoming Dean of Harvard GSD — the most prominent design school in the United States — a position he held from 2008 to 2019. He is currently Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. His scholarly work spans architectural theory, urban history, landscape urbanism, and the aesthetics of construction. His book On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time (MIT Press, 1993, co-authored with David Leatherbarrow) received the AIA commendation prize for writing on architectural theory. Surface Architecture (MIT Press, 2002) won the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Award. Other publications include Delayed Space (Princeton Architectural Press, 1994, with Homa Farjadi), Landscape Urbanism (AA, 2004), Ecological Urbanism (Lars Müller, 2010), and Architecture and Plurality (Lars Müller, 2016). He has served on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and as a Master Jury member for the 2014–2016 cycle. He chaired the jury of the Mies van der Rohe Prize and led juries of the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction. He is a member of RIBA and served on its Gold Medal Selection Committee. In 2003, he served as a juror for the 3rd Memar Award. He is married to architect Homa Farjadi.