Leila Araghian(Architect)

How I Designed a Bridge to Bring People Together

Architecture is not about math or zoning — it’s about designing moments of lives for people. Leila Araghian who came up with Tabi’at Bridge design at the age of 26, in a sweeping talk shares what is unique about this amazing bridge at the heart of Tehran with the audience: “This is not a bridge for people to pass by, this is a bridge for people to stay”.

Leila Araghian(Architect)

How I Designed a Bridge to Bring People Together

Architecture is not about math or zoning — it’s about designing moments of lives for people. Leila Araghian who came up with Tabi’at Bridge design at the age of 26, in a sweeping talk shares what is unique about this amazing bridge at the heart of Tehran with the audience: “This is not a bridge for people to pass by, this is a bridge for people to stay”.

Leila Araghian

Leila Araghian
Born in Tehran in 1983, Leila holds a BA in architecture from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, an MA in membrane structures from Anhalt University in Germany and an MA from the University of British Columbia, Canada where she won the UBC architecture alumni Henry Elder prize. She wrote her thesis on "Modesty: Serendipity in Silence" which is going to be published as a book.
In 2005, she co-founded Diba Tensile Architecture in Tehran, along with Alireza Behzadi, a company specializing in the design, manufacture and installation of membrane structures.
In 2011 she worked as technical assistant at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. She was the chief architect and the designer of the Tabi’at Bridge in Tehran, a pedestrian bridge opened in the late 2014 which won several awards, including the Popular Choice award in the Highways & Bridges category of Architizer's 2015 A+ Awards.