Marziah Zad is an award-winning architect and researcher interested in the application of digital tools and advanced technologies for the benefit of society. She is currently the Academic Coordinator of the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings at IAAC. She has a BArch from the University of Tehran and a MArch from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) specialising in Digital Morphogenesis and Behavioural Urbanism. As a practising professional, Marziah has worked independently and in collaboration with architects in the Middle East, Europe and the USA. She has also Co-Founded UDA, a multiscalar design practice based in Tehran, Iran.

Marziah’s investigations in light-weight structures and morphogenetic design strategies to seed intelligent design solutions informs her parallel pursuits of practice and pedagogy. She has taught generative design at universities in Iran and the USA. Her experience in research-based design and the application of light-weight structures towards future sustainable systems has evolved into a specialized research agenda focused on the exploration of mathematical and natural geometry systems as a generative framework and design agent. She is interested in the intersection of digital technologies and generative strategies in design and their consequent impact on the environment and the local to a global sense of culture and identity.