ABOUT MIIM DESIGNS:
MIIM is a research-driven architecture practice advancing spatial systems that mediate between ecology, culture, and collective life. The work operates across scales: from material systems and exhibitions to buildings and urban infrastructure, treating architecture not as discrete form, but as an evolving framework shaped by environmental forces, cultural memory, and shared agency.
ARCHITECTURE OF THE COLLECTIVE SANCTUARY
Architecture today can no longer operate as the production of isolated objects. It must construct frameworks that enable collective life to persist under conditions of ecological, cultural, and social instability. MIIM advances an architecture of the collective sanctuary: a spatial system that mediates between environment, culture, and shared human agency.
AREAS OF INQUIRY:
Design as Social Practice
Architecture as a participatory process shaped through collaboration, community engagement, and shared authorship.
Architecture as Cultural Archive
Space as a medium for translating memory, identity, and diasporic narratives into lived experience.
Circular Material Systems
Material research grounded in reuse, locality, and environmental responsiveness.
Policy + Spatial Strategy
Expanding architecture beyond form-making into systems, infrastructure, and institutional frameworks.
PEOPLE:
MARYAM ESKANDARI, Principal
Maryam Eskandari is the founding principal of MIIM DESIGNS. Her work operates at the intersection of architecture, cultural narrative, and environmental systems, with projects spanning North America, Europe, Africa, and South Asia. She has received national and international recognition for advancing architecture as a form of social and environmental practice, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Doris Duke Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Institute of Architects.
Eskandari has taught at Harvard University and the Boston Architectural College, and has served as the Nature Conservancy Capstone Thesis Professor. Her work includes contributions to major cultural and educational projects as well as global heritage initiatives, including the restoration of Humayun’s Tomb in India. She has served on the boards of the Open Architecture Collaborative and the 1947 Partition Archive.
Recognition
MIIM DESIGNS has been recognized nationally and internationally for excellence in design, research, and cultural impact.
Selected honors include:
National Endowment for the Arts (2x recipient): Children’s Museum of Manhattan: America to Zanzibar Exhibit
Doris Duke Foundation Award: Children’s Museum of Manhattan: America to Zanzibar Exhibit
National Endowment for the Humanities: Children’s Museum of Manhattan: America to Zanzibar Exhibit
Institute of Museum and Library Services (multiple awards): Children’s Museum of Manhattan: America to Zanzibar Exhibit and Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose: Nowruz Around the World
American Institute of Architects: Betty Fairfax High School, Phoenix College Fine Arts and Steven Udvar-Hazy Library and Learning Center
Excellence in Design: International Museum of Women
Aga Khan Trust for Culture: Humayun’s Tomb
UNESCO World Heritage: Humayun’s Tomb
281 East Colorado Blvd Suite #155 Pasadena, CA 91101
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