Farzin Lotfi-Jam

Born in 1984 in Teheran/Iran.

Farzin Lotfi-Jam is the principal of FarzinFarzin, a studio operating between New York, NY/USA, Detroit, MI/USA and Melbourne/Australia that designs spaces, software, and media. He received a bachelor’s degree in design and a master’s degree in architecture from RMIT University, Melbourne. Additionally, he holds a master’s degree in advanced architectural design from Columbia University, New York.

Trained as an architect, he has a broad experience as a designer in professional offices and with individually directed design and research projects. He has held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI/USA; Columbia University; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY/USA; Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA/USA and RMIT University. He is interested in the cultural logic of form and meaning as produced through complex systems, institutional processes and contested sites. One recent project, Towards Universal Value, examined UNESCO, its World Heritage List, and the logic of »universal value«. Another project, Hairy Balls, conducted a series of algorithmic experiments that tested the contingent capacities of form.

His work has been recognized in open competition formats including the winning proposal in 2012 for the design of a Velodrome in Medellín/Colombia and has been collected by the Centre Pompidou in Paris/France. His research has been funded by the Veski organization and Taubman College at University of Michigan, where he was the 2013–2014 Walter B. Sanders Fellow.