Architecture grad student honored for challenging conventional design methods

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Mahtab Khabir, who will graduate this weekend from the professional master of architecture program in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, was named the winner of the Department of Architecture’s 2026 Jawaid Haider Award for Design Excellence in Graduate Studies for her thesis project that reimagines architecture through sound, movement and human perception rather than solely through form and function.

Titled “Urban Resonance,” the project is a proposed center for art, sound and sensory experiences in Harlem, New York, situated between Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus and the surrounding community. The design transforms a residual triangular site into a terraced public landscape and cultural hub shaped by acoustic and spatial analysis.

Khabir, who was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and completed her undergraduate architectural studies in Armenia before coming to Penn State, said her cross-cultural experiences deeply influence her approach to architecture.

Living and studying across different cultures, she said, made her more sensitive as to how environments shape human experience.

“Cities are not only physical environments,” she said. “They are emotional and cultural experiences that shape memory, identity and belonging.”

Khabir began her research by mapping the site’s existing conditions — documenting sound intensity, frequency, movement patterns of people, subway infrastructure and pedestrian flow.

That acoustic mapping revealed gradients and overlaps that became the basis for organizing circulation paths, landform and program.

The result of Khabir’s work is a design that translates five musical parameters — rhythm, timbre, dynamics, silence and improvisation — into six spatial principles governing form, movement, acoustic behavior and atmosphere. Instead of treating sound as an afterthought, the project uses it as a primary driver of architectural decision-making.

The process became a chain of research, analysis, synthesis and design rather than a traditional form-making exercise, according to Khabir.

“Instead of beginning with an image of a building, the project emerged from understanding the site as a living sensory environment,” she said.

At the center of the project is a “Resonance Bowl,” an immersive interior circulation area where curvature, sound reflection and shifting visual perspectives create a layered sensory experience for users. A terraced public landscape rises and folds across the site, creating gradual transitions between gathering, performance, reflection and movement throughout the space.

The project was designed in direct response to its urban context. Although Columbia University and Harlem sit side by side physically, they often lack meaningful shared public space, Khabir said. “Urban Resonance” aims to bridge that divide not through symbolic gestures, but by creating what Khabir described as a “shared sensory environment,” where communities coexist through experience.

The cultural significance of Harlem played a major role in shaping the project. The area’s legacy of jazz, street performance, art murals and public gatherings informed the project's emphasis on improvisation, atmosphere and “collective memory.” Khabir also drew inspiration from architect-composer Iannis Xenakis and thinkers such as John Cage and Rudolf Arnheim, who explored perception, silence and sensory experience.

In addition, Khabir said her experience as an intern with Kohn Pedersen Fox for two summers also deeply influenced her project.

“Working on large-scale urban developments helped me understand cities not as isolated buildings, but as living systems shaped by movement, infrastructure, public life and human interaction,” she said. “That experience [at KPF] strengthened my interest in urban design and public space as areas where architecture has its greatest social impact.”

Before turning to architecture, Khabir studied in an art high school and trained in piano for more than a decade. She said her background led her to see parallels between music and space: both unfold over time, rely on rhythm and sequence, and can evoke emotion.

“My intention was never to design a ‘musical building,’” Khabir said of her thesis project. “It was to investigate how principles of musical composition could translate into an architectural experience.”

The jury for this year’s Haider Award included Esther Obonyo, professor of engineering design and of architectural engineering at Penn State, and Clarissa Albrecht, associate professor in architecture and urbanism at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil and a lecturer in the Stuckeman School’s Department of Architecture.

“Based on actual sound data and learning from existing movement patterns, the project proposes a sound experience that is appealing,” the jury wrote in a statement about Khabir’s work. “The proposed solution creates a community space accessible to a broad audience, which enhances urban connection.”

As for winning the Haider Award, Khabir said it means a great deal to her because her thesis project represents years of personal and intellectual growth.

“For me, this award feels like confirmation that pursuing architecture through meaning, experience, research and human impact is valuable,” she said. “It gives me the confidence to continue following those instincts and developing architecture that seeks depth, clarity and emotional resonance.”

Now in its seventh year, the Haider Award for Design Excellence recognizes the most deserving master of architecture student for excellence in design, based on their culminating project/thesis. The award recipient is chosen by the head of the Department of Architecture upon recommendation by the faculty and the jury. The award was established in honor of the late Jawaid Haider, a long-time architecture professor at Penn State who died in 2018, with support from his family, friends and colleagues.