Dr. Sina Mostafavi is an architect, researcher, and educator whose work examines how computational design, architectural robotics, and hybrid human-machine intelligence can reshape the relationship between design and construction. He is an Associate Professor at Texas Tech University's Huckabee College of Architecture and Director of the Hi-DARS Lab (Hybrid Intelligence Design & Architectural Robotic Systems Lab), where his research develops fabrication-aware design methods, robotic additive manufacturing, and embodied AI for material-efficient, circular, and resilient construction. Before joining Texas Tech, he was Senior Researcher and Manager of the Robotic Building Lab at TU Delft, initiated and directed DARS.hub at the Dessau Institute of Architecture, and held a senior academic appointment at the University of Huddersfield. Through his practice, SETUP Design, he adapts digital design-to-production technologies to specific geographic and cultural contexts; its Soft Stone building received the Architizer A+ Award and the 2A Continental Euro-Asia Award. Mostafavi has taught more than 100 design studios, seminars, and courses at Texas Tech University, TU Delft, the Dessau Institute of Architecture, and the University of Huddersfield, ranging from courses in computational design logic and architectural robotics to graduate design-build studios and interdisciplinary doctoral seminars on embodied AI and AI-enabled robotics in construction, co-taught across departments with faculty in civil engineering and computer science. He has advised more than 60 master's theses and served on more than 10 doctoral committees in Europe and the United States.
He is the author of Hybrid Intelligence in Architectural Robotic Materialization (TU Delft, 2021), co-author and co-editor of the forthcoming The New Urban Energy Matters: Decoding Disruptive Transitions in a Post-Industrial World (Actar Publishers, 2026), and lead editor of the forthcoming Springer Nature collection Physical Intelligence and Embodied AI in Architecture (2027). His work has been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, Dutch Design Week, and ETH Zurich. He serves on the Board of Directors of ACADIA and the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing, has filed a U.S. patent application for the Timber-Dowel Reciprocal Lattice System, and received the 2026 Texas Tech President's Emerging Engaged Scholarship Award for community-engaged research on resilient housing and equitable access to emerging construction technologies. He has managed more than $1.2 million in research expenditures spanning institutional, industry, cultural, and federal support, including partnerships with AUDI, NWO, and Dutch Culture USA, and federally funded research as Lead PI on a National Science Foundation award and Co-PI on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiatives.
You can follow the work of the Hi-DARS Lab on Instagram (@hi.dars_lab ) or visit the lab website, Hi-DARS Lab.
Ph.D. in Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands