Dr. Sina Mostafavi is a practicing architect, researcher, and educator with computational design and architectural robotics expertise. He is an Associate Professor at Texas Tech University College of Architecture. Mostafavi’s research focuses on innovative applications of emerging materials and technologies, empowered by hybrid human-machine intelligence, for integrated design, inclusive automation, and circular production. He holds a doctoral degree from TU Delft, where he has been a senior researcher and the manager at the robotic building lab of Hyperbody Research Group at BK-City. At the Dessau Institute of Architecture in Bauhaus, he initiated the DARS.hub unit [Design, Architectural Robotics & Systems], where he led several interdisciplinary projects such as 100 Years Bauhaus Pavilion, Bioplastic Robotic-3D-Printing and Adaptive City Car sponsored by AUDI. As a practicing architect, he is the founder of SETUParchitecture, an award-winning studio aiming to adapt digital design-to-production technologies to geo-cultural specificities.
Mostafavi’s projects have been featured in international exhibitions, such as V2 gallery-institute for unstable media of Rotterdam, synthetic Exhibition in Le Mans Lillie, NAi in Rotterdam, construction week in Utrecht, Dutch Design Week, and Print the World Exposition in Centre Pompidou Paris. Mostafavi has received several awards, such as Architizer A+ Awards 2020, 2A Continental Euro-Asia Award 2018 in IAAC Barcelona for Softstone Building, and Emerging Scholar Digital Futures 2021 award. Before moving to Texas, he held several research and faculty appointments in the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK, where he led and taught more than 60 design studios and seminars and supervised more than 60 graduate and post-graduate students graduating with research-oriented architectural design projects.
Mostafavi is the author of the book titled Hybrid Intelligence in Architectural Robotic Materialization (HI-ARM), which centers on incorporating Computational, Fabrication, and Material Intelligence in integrated design-to-robotic-production workflows. Lectured and published internationally, he has presented his works in numerous institutions such as ETH Zurich, AA-London, UT Sydney, USC Los Angeles, TU Vienna, Paris Malaquais, and KNAW Amsterdam, among others. He is a scientific committee member of various journals and conferences such as eCAADe, ACADIA and CAAD Futures, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, and Automation in Construction Journals. He is an elected Board of Directors member in ACADIA (2022-24) and Editorial Board member in IJAC Journal (2022-23).
Ph.D. in Architecture, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands