Yasaman Esmaili
Founding Partner
Studio Chahar
Yasaman Esmaili, Assoc. AIA, is the founder of Studio Chahar, an award-winning research-based design practice, and an architectural designer and educator based in Boston and Tehran. Trained as an architect at the University of Tehran, she has continued her academic and professional journey at the University of Arizona and the University of Washington. Her practice and teaching focus on cultural expression, environmental resilience, and equity through community-driven design.
Yasaman is the recipient of the 2020 Tamayouz Women in Architecture Award (Rising Star category). She founded Studio Chahar in 2018 to engage with local communities through a bottom-up, collaborative design process. Her recent work includes the Sarzurzuma Rehabilitation Project in Qeshm Island, which received the 2022 ICOM Creativity Award, and Niamey 2000 in Niger, shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award and previously awarded by AIA Seattle and Architect Magazine. Other notable projects include the Hikma Religious and Secular Complex in Dandaji, Niger (2018 LafargeHolcim Global Silver and MEA Gold Awards) and Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan (2018 AIA National Honor Award).
In 2019, she co-founded Color My Home, a project developed with Architecture for Refugees, USA, exploring the meaning of home through architectural thinking. Yasaman is also a founding member of united4design, a transnational collective dedicated to global design discourse.
Her early professional experience includes working at Arcosanti in Arizona, where she explored experimental architecture and ecological urbanism. She has also practiced with Blokable, Hewitt, and Miller Hull Architects in Seattle, and AE Architects in Istanbul. Yasaman is currently an adjunct professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology and has taught at Keene State College, Roger Williams University, and the University of Washington. She has been a guest critic at Harvard GSD, Yale, Auburn University, and among other institutions.
Yasaman is the recipient of the 2020 Tamayouz Women in Architecture Award (Rising Star category). She founded Studio Chahar in 2018 to engage with local communities through a bottom-up, collaborative design process. Her recent work includes the Sarzurzuma Rehabilitation Project in Qeshm Island, which received the 2022 ICOM Creativity Award, and Niamey 2000 in Niger, shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award and previously awarded by AIA Seattle and Architect Magazine. Other notable projects include the Hikma Religious and Secular Complex in Dandaji, Niger (2018 LafargeHolcim Global Silver and MEA Gold Awards) and Gohar Khatoon Girls’ School in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan (2018 AIA National Honor Award).
In 2019, she co-founded Color My Home, a project developed with Architecture for Refugees, USA, exploring the meaning of home through architectural thinking. Yasaman is also a founding member of united4design, a transnational collective dedicated to global design discourse.
Her early professional experience includes working at Arcosanti in Arizona, where she explored experimental architecture and ecological urbanism. She has also practiced with Blokable, Hewitt, and Miller Hull Architects in Seattle, and AE Architects in Istanbul. Yasaman is currently an adjunct professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology and has taught at Keene State College, Roger Williams University, and the University of Washington. She has been a guest critic at Harvard GSD, Yale, Auburn University, and among other institutions.