WE DESIGN COMMUNITIES and CREATE CULTURE.

ABOUT MIIM DESIGNS:
MIIM is a research-driven architecture practice advancing spatial systems that mediate ecology, culture, and collective life —from exhibition environments and material systems to buildings and urban infrastructure. The practice advances architecture as a cultural, environmental, and social framework—using spatial design to engage community knowledge, ecological systems, and collective memory.

Practice Framework
MIIM’s work is organized through four interconnected 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’s role beyond form-making into systems, infrastructure, and institutional frameworks. 

Position

Architecture of the Collective Sanctuary Architecture today operates within conditions of ecological instability, cultural fragmentation, and social inequity. In this context, the discipline must move beyond the production of discrete objects toward the construction of frameworks that support collective life. MIIM advances an architecture of the collective sanctuary—not as enclosure or retreat, but as an active spatial condition that accommodates plurality, absorbs difference, and enables new forms of gathering.

The name MIIM derives from the shared thirteenth letter across Semitic languages—Phoenician, Hebrew, and Arabic—signifying water. This is a methodological position. Like water, the work operates as a fluid system—adapting, infiltrating, and reshaping relationships between site, culture, and environment. Geometry is deployed as a generative system rather than formal reference. Drawing from shared geometric traditions, MIIM constructs spatial frameworks based on proportion, repetition, and variation—systems that distribute authorship and allow space to be collectively inhabited and transformed over time.

Each project engages culture, climate, and history as active forces, not static references. Architecture becomes a process of translation—where layered narratives and environmental conditions are recalibrated into new spatial orders. The collective sanctuary is also ecological. Environmental performance is embedded as a spatial driver—integrating light, air, material behavior, and landscape as co-authors in the design process. Central to this work is a redefinition of authorship. MIIM rejects the model of the singular architect, instead structuring design as a collaborative system between communities, institutions, and environments.

Across exhibitions, buildings, and infrastructure, the practice constructs spatial systems that shape how people gather, learn, and relate to one another.

PEOPLE:
MARYAM ESKANDARI, Principal

Maryam Eskandari is the founding principal of MIIM DESIGNS. Her work operates at the intersection of architecture, cultural narrative, and social impact, with projects spanning the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia. She is a recipient of major national and international recognitions, including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Doris Duke Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Her work has also been recognized by the American Institute of Architects (including include, the Betty Fairfax High School, Phoenix College Fine Arts and Steven Udvar-Hazy Library and Learning Center;) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Eskandari has received honors from Harvard University, the Cambridge Judge Business School, and the White House for her work advancing architecture as a form of social enterprise and environmental stewardship. She has taught at Harvard University and the Boston Architectural College, and served as the inaugural Nature Conservancy Capstone Thesis Professor. Her professional work includes contributions to major cultural and educational projects, as well as global heritage initiatives such as the restoration of Humayun’s Tomb in India. She has served on the boards of organizations including the Open Architecture Collaborative, the 1947 Partition Archive, and international environmental and cultural initiatives.

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)

  • Doris Duke Foundation Award

  • National Endowment for the Humanities

  • Institute of Museum and Library Services (multiple awards)

  • American Institute of Architects – Faith & Form Award

  • Excellence in Design – International Museum of Women

Scope
MIIM DESIGNS operates across cultural and geographic contexts, with work spanning North America, Europe, Africa, and South Asia. The practice engages diverse environments as sites of research—examining how architecture translates across climate, culture, and community.

281 East Colorado Blvd Suite #155 Pasadena, CA 91101  
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