ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN / RESEARCH /

ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN / RESEARCH /

Meherzad Shroff

A built environment consultant, design researcher, and educator based in Adelaide, Australia. He founded Archispora.Studio in 2017 as an independent spatial practice working across design research, exhibitions, and cultural projects. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Adelaide, where his research focuses on adaptive reuse and intangible heritage. He also teaches as a Sessional Lecturer and Tutor at the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Adelaide.

Over the past decade, Meherzad has been involved in the design, research, and curation of exhibitions exploring the history of architecture and the built environment. His work has been presented internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 where he contributed to the Australian Pavilion through the design of the Country Demappedelement, an interpretive graphic mapping of Queenstown in Tasmania.

Through his spatial practice, Meherzad explores the relationship between culture, material history, and environmental sustainability in the built environment. His work investigates themes of intangible heritage, construction history, design research, material reuse, and digital fabrication, developing experimental approaches to the interpretation and transformation of existing structures and landscapes.

WORK

Archispora.Studio

Archispora.Studio is an independent spatial practice based in Adelaide that operates at the intersection of design research, cultural production, and built environment consultancy.

The studio seeks to achieve an interplay between techne and tectonic. Techne represents cutting-edge technologies, digital tools, and design research that inform the making of new architectural concepts, where the practical application of knowledge is realised through spatial and built-environment practice. In parallel, the studio prioritises tectonic principles and craftsmanship, grounded in a deep engagement with construction history. This dual approach positions architecture as a cultural practice capable of expressing identity and heritage through the poetics of construction.

Within the studio’s work, architecture extends beyond physical space to foster a sense of belonging, bridge communities, and preserve cultural heritage through spatial experiences and effects. A reframed understanding of diaspora underpins an exploration of relationships between people, cultures, and spaces across geographical and political boundaries. Archispora.Studio embraces the diversity of diasporic communities, forging connections to cultural origins through spatial and design practice while cultivating identity and belonging within adopted contexts. Here, “architecture becomes a method” for cultural and spatial production, strengthening the agency of architectural theory through cultural studies and critical inquiry. ¹

The studio’s portfolio reflects a commitment to architectural heritage, sustainability, material reuse and their narratives, and user agency, deploying these strategies through technology alongside architectural history, theory, and production. The work spans architecture-related research, design, and cultural production across various building typologies and media, including the design of interpretive structures, exhibitions, sustainability advocacy and consultation, and the documentation of existing and future spatial conditions.

¹ Scriver, P., Srivastava, A. & Lu, D. (2018), ‘Re-Asia: Architecture as Tactic’, Architectural Theory Review, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 301–308.

ABN: 21 565 700 340