Hi, I'm Zahra Rasti, an architectural designer, professor, and scholar
a professor, what do you teach?
Design studios and drawing at the University of Washington , including a seminars called Mapping for Social Justice, where students use spatial analysis to investigate envoirnmental and social injustice, such as state violence, and displacement.
ARCH 200–201
2nd year Studio| Design and Representation
Foundation studios for pre-major students, introducing drawing as a critical tool for thinking, analysis, and design.
ARCH 302
3rd year Studio|In the Shade of Each Other
Students move from a city-wide analysis of Seattle to a neighborhood study, then propose housing addressing social justice, mobility, and infrastructure.
ARCH 498
Special Topics, Mapping for Social Justice
Mapping as an active tool for engaging social and political conditions, through original student documentation and guest lectures.
Student work on review, Gould Gallery, University of Washington, October 2022.
Do you teach only in Seattle, or is there more to it?
I also lead Architecture in Finland, a five-week study abroad program where students explore Finnish design, architecture, and culture — engaging directly with the built environment through drawing and fieldwork, the same representation-as-inquiry approach taken out of the studio and into the field.
sketchbooks and design work were then featured at the National Nordic Museum Seattle as part of the Nordic Innovation Series: Designing Better Cities
And what do you actually research?
How representation shapes collective knowledge, how the way we draw, map, and document something changes what we're able to see, question, and understand about it.
The Miscommunications in the Media: Protesting the Death of Masha Amini. Sharif University, Tehran, Iran, October 2022.
Have youpracticed architecture in offices too, or just mostly teaching and research?
Both , Multiple years of practice before and alongside teaching: BIM coordination on high-rises in Finland, adaptive reuse and tenant improvements in California, and recreational center in Iran.
BMW collision repair center, Weatherford, California — interior design, Banta DesignAnnie's Natural Foods HQ — Berkeley, California, tenant improvement
808 A Street , Hayward, California, affordable housing
K-Sairala , Lappeenranta, Finland
Absar Water Complex , Isfahan,Iran, aqua recreation
That's a big idea; where does it actually show up?
In VOICE, the nonprofit I founded. it is interdiciplinary platform between Architects, urban designers, computer scientis and human right activists. We use architectural mapping and video evidence to document protest and conflict , connecting the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Tehran to war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine and more.VOICE digital mapping platform — studiovoice.org
Politics of Visibility | Visualizing Resistance through Space and Identity
A Two-Column Installation By VOICE @ Antipode Gallery, Seattle, 2026
Didn't you also write a book?
Yes, Line Mass & Space, a workbook on drawing as a way of seeing and understanding architecture, published by Kendall Hunt. It grew out of the foundation drawing curriculum I teach at UW.
Exhibition @ Time, Space, Existence: Venice Biennale Architecture 2025
Are you taking on any projects right now?
Selectively — architectural design consulting and mapping or documentation collaborations.
Get in touch if something might be a fit.
How do I find you again?
zahra.rasti@gmail.com
© Zahra Rasti