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Tangible . Intangible

April 04, 2025
 Although I grew up in a middle-class family in a developing country, I have seen and lived in various living conditions and cultures- from high-society luxury apartments to low-cost mud wall houses, however short those periods might have been. I have slept on a $500 bed in a highly air-conditioned, pricy hotel room and on the cold, dirty floor of a poorly maintained public hospital on a winter night without heating. I studied at the country's most prestigious undergraduate university while starting a not-so-well-known primary school in an almost remote village. I worked in a prestigious architectural firm on a 40-story commercial high-rise design project for a wealthy client in a cozy office with high-end computers; on the other hand, I also worked as a carpet cleaner, wearing dirty clothes and mopping under a local business, for minimum wage to support my family. All these extremes and diverse life experiences have shaped my view of people, culture, and the power of community.

But the thing that motivates me the most in building myself as a designer who works with people as their friend is my newfound understanding of my religion, Islam. It has been only six years since I started diving into the ideology of the religion I was born into, but never thought about deeply. Certain life-altering events, health conditions, and occasionally more profound thoughts about my purpose as a human, living, breathing, tasting, and enjoying this ephemeral worldly life, solidified a vision of the kind of person I want to be, the kind of designer I need to be. The rituals started to link so beautifully with the understandings behind them that I see the world around me through a whole new lens, much clearer than ever.

In Islam, every creation has a purpose. We, as humans, are placed in the highest place of all creations, and we are given something that no other creation was gifted with- our intellect and empathy. These two sides of the coin decide our path in this world and the next- leaning into only one direction makes us lose our humanity. Making strictly calculative decisions while leaving empathy makes us soulless, while the opposite extreme makes us ignorant. We are supposed to take the middle path, mainly when we are tasked with handling tangible resources (like materials, money, land, etc.)  and intangible resources (culture, norms, values, emotions, etc.). As designers, our work is way more important than anyone else, as the stakes are on par with some professions (like doctors, lawyers, etc.) and even higher than others. We are the people who are influenced by the context and also influence the context. Contrary to mass-spread belief, my religious ideology does not conflict with other ideologies, as it allows individuals to have their own freedom. To work with a community, we designers need to be part of it. A community is diverse, with a range of beliefs and philosophies. As public interest designers, we consider all the stakeholders (including ourselves) and make decisions based on compromise, compassion, and collaboration. Conflicting issues can be resolved through mutual discussion and evidence-based calculations, enabling stakeholders to take ownership of the final product.

My journey in NC State University’s Master's in Architecture program began with two not-so-mutually-exclusive pursuits: a specialization in Energy and Technology in Architecture and in Public Interest Design. We live in a fast-paced world where technology, climate, and culture are shaped based on global, diverse decisions. Our language is being shaped by social media exposure, and now, with the rise of AI, we can assume that culture and norms will take a drastic turn, either for better or worse. It is our duty as designers to guide this change in a positive direction, and we cannot do so without specializing in both sides of the coin. The Energy and Technology specialization works as the tangible, intellectual, and calculative side of my architecture philosophy. In contrast, the Public Interest Design specialization will teach me the intangible side of architecture, where empathy also guides good design.

My ideologies grounded in religion may raise conflicts of interest in some communities (like secular or diverse spaces) where I might work in the future, but there are solutions to these issues. Using communication as a medium of education, not preaching, can clarify my stance as a designer for the community. Secular spaces can be beautiful examples of ideologies coming together as a community. As a graduate student at NC State University, I collaborate with my groupmates on various projects and successfully apply my philosophy and ideology without disclosing my religious background. Practicing self-reflection and self-care as a part of my design process also helps prevent emotional burnout. Another method to follow is giving and celebrating everyone’s voice in the participatory process- acknowledging their initial ideas with respect and then elevating that same thought with personal expertise can create value for the opinion that people share.