'We didn’t lose our practice. We are redefining it.'

Studying interior architecture with Iran in the background

That pace matters. Design in Iran doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The country has faced long-term political and economic pressure, with rising costs and periods of uncertainty that can reach into daily life. At times, internet shutdowns make it hard to stay in touch with people back home. Living with that context shapes how you work, what you propose, and how you keep going.

In Zwolle, Maryam and Arman are still themselves, but their way of working is changing.

From digital design to full-scale installations

'In Iran, I mainly worked behind a computer,' Arman says. 'Everything remained digital. Here, we build it ourselves. On a one-to-one scale. You can immediately see what it does to people.'

That shift from drawing to building is one of the first things he noticed in the programme. Ideas don’t stay theoretical for long. You make something, observe how a body responds, adjust, and rebuild. The work becomes physical, and that physicality changes your thinking.

Spatial storytelling and experience design in the Master Interior Architecture

Arman has also become more aware of his own signature. 'I notice that my way of designing is very narrative. I tell a story in space.' He calls himself an experience designer: someone who doesn’t only create a concept, but constructs how it will be lived.

Designing with the senses: movement, making, and atmosphere

Maryam recognises the same shift, but describes it differently. 'You start understanding space through movement, making and sensing, not only drawing.' Where her previous education leaned towards solving a space correctly, she now experiences interior architecture as something you feel first, and then translate into choices.

Wellbeing and relaxation as a design strategy in interior architecture

Her projects often revolve around relaxation and wellbeing: how light, rhythm, material and routing can reduce tension. Not as decoration, but as a deliberate design strategy. 'I’m using this period to figure out what I really want,' she says. For her, the master’s is rare time: structured, intense, but open enough to make your own direction.

Designing under different conditions

For both students, the contrast between Iran and the Netherlands isn’t about ambition or ability. It’s about the conditions you work in. 'In my country, the price of materials changes daily,' Arman says. 'Inflation affects everything.' When every decision has a price tag that may shift tomorrow, stability becomes a luxury. In the master’s context, he experiences more room to experiment without immediately having to defend every step as the safest or cheapest option.

He also points out another layer. 'If I were to do a project like this one here, in Iran I would first think about safety.' Not because every design is political, but because interpretation can have consequences. That awareness doesn’t disappear when you move countries. It travels with you, and it sharpens the way you read spaces, systems, and audiences.

When current events become part of a spatial design project

While they study in the Netherlands, life in Iran continues for the people they love. Family and friends are still there. And sometimes, connection drops. 'Then you just wait,' Arman says. 'You don’t know what’s going on.' That feeling found its way into a project about waiting rooms. What started as an abstract assignment gained a personal layer. During a presentation, he noticed how strongly it landed. 'When something is so tangible, people feel it.'

Interior architecture in an international classroom at ArtEZ

Maryam takes a different approach to keep functioning. 'Sometimes you put it on autopilot,' she says, not out of indifference, but as a way to stay steady. Her focus on calm and regulation becomes broader in that context, without turning into a manifesto. 'Maybe the world already has enough tension,' she adds. 'As an architect, I feel a responsibility to offer people peace of mind.'

They didn’t lose their practice. They brought it with them. In Zwolle, they’re learning how to rethink it, with their hands, with their bodies, and with a sharper sense of what space can do.

About the Master Interior Architecture at ArtEZ University of the Arts

The Master Interior Architecture at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Zwolle is a research-driven programme that approaches interior architecture as a spatial, social and experiential practice. Students develop their individual position through experimentation, critical reflection and making at different scales, from concept to full-scale installations, within an international learning environment.