Zeinab Maghdouri

Zeinab believes that architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design should not exist in isolation but in constant dialogue. She is an advocate for the integration of these disciplines, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and focusing on the intersections where they converge. Her ambition is to attain proficiency in all three fields, enabling her to contribute holistically to project development.

She earned her Master of Landscape Architecture with Advanced Placement from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2024, where she was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects Certificate of Honor for Excellence for her thesis, The Oasis Effect: Reclaiming Tunis’ Indigenous Water Systems. She also received the ASLA Honor Award in Student Collaboration for Post-Carceral Justice: Reclaiming the Bronx’s Transitional Margins.

Before coming to the U.S., Zeinab ran her own practice in Iran, where she primarily focused on architectural competitions, participating in more than 30 national and international competitions. This experience allowed her to explore a wide range of design challenges, from urban interventions to landscape strategies, reinforcing her interdisciplinary perspective. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Architectural Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology.

What Zeinab loves most about landscape in Iran is the concept of the Persian garden, which has evolved across the country’s remarkably diverse climate zones—from the lush, temperate forests of the north to the arid deserts of the central plateau and the subtropical coastlines of the south. These gardens demonstrate resilience, resourcefulness, and a deep cultural connection to water and nature, adapting to vastly different environmental conditions while maintaining a unifying design philosophy. In her spare time, she enjoys oil painting, swimming, and digital art.