Studio
Writing & Research
A selection of academic research, essays, translations, scripts, and ongoing inquiries across education, culture, society, and the built environment.
2026
Architecture | Aesthetics
Neshat Shirazi
Three Tables, Two Languages, One Difficult Word
An essay on aesthetic judgment in architectural education, developed through Neshat Shirazi’s experiences across BIHE and the Bergen School of Architecture. Moving between questions of beauty, taste, tacit knowledge, language, and pedagogy, the essay asks what architects learn when they learn to see, and how aesthetic judgment can be discussed without reducing it either to objective rules or to mere personal preference.
2024-2026
Research | Original Script Development
Neshat Shirazi & Pedram Vafadari
BPlus
A series of research-based scripts developed for the BPlus YouTube channel in collaboration with Ali Bandari. The projects explore different questions in Iranian history, art, philosophy, and political culture, often by placing familiar subjects in a wider historical or comparative context.
Our contribution to these projects consisted of research and the development of the original scripts. The published videos were subsequently edited and adapted by BPlus as part of its editorial process.
2023
Research | Master’s Thesis
Pedram Vafadari
Does More Education Lead to More Happiness?
An empirical study of the relationship between education and subjective well-being, developed as Pedram Vafadari’s master’s thesis in Higher Education at the University of Oslo. Using data from the World Values Survey, the research examines whether higher levels of education are associated with greater happiness and how this relationship varies across social contexts.
2022
Higher Education | Iran
Pedram Vafadari
Iranian Higher Education — Selected Academic Papers
Three academic papers written during the M.Phil in Higher Education at the University of Oslo, examining different aspects of higher education in Iran. Together, they look at the governance of the sector, the limited role of market mechanisms, and the institutional tensions surrounding internationalization, with particular attention to the relationship between universities, the state, and the wider social and political environment.
2015
Translation
Architecture | Sustainable Construction
Pedram Vafadari
Earthbag Building
A Persian translation of Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques, introducing an accessible low-cost construction method based on earth-filled bags. The work grew out of an interest in alternative building systems, sustainability, and forms of construction that can be learned and implemented with relatively simple resources.