Are We Designing Blind? Why Architecture Must Measure Its Impact – Ep 125 with Dr. Helia Taheri
This week on Better Buildings for Humans, host Joe Menchefski sits down with Dr. Helia Taheri, Research and Insights Lead at Arcadis, for an inspiring deep dive into human-centric design, evidence-based practice, and the future of our cities. Born and raised in Iran and now working in the U.S., Helia shares how her artistic upbringing, architectural training, and PhD research shaped her mission to bridge design and behavioral science.
From retail prototypes to global workplace research, she explores how culture, climate, and community shape the way we experience buildings. The conversation also tackles post-occupancy evaluation, data gaps in architecture, and her passion for creating walkable, connected cities. This episode is a powerful call to measure our impact, design with intention, and build flexible spaces that truly serve human needs.
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More About Dr. Helia Taheri
Dr. Helia Taheri is an award-winning mixed-methods researcher with 8+ years of experience in strategizing and conducting human-centric research in multidisciplinary teams to have a positive impact on people, the planet, and business. She considers herself a pollinator between different fields of architecture, human behavior, and sustainability and commits to bridging the gap between industry and academia. Helia has a passion for learning and distributing knowledge and is actively engaged in presenting at conferences and publishing articles that connect the latest research with practice. She is a guest lecturer at universities such as Carnegie Mellon, USC, and Portland State University and a mentor to increase awareness among younger researchers about their important role in achieving data-driven design in architecture. Helia has a Ph.D. in human-centric research from North Carolina State University, an M.S. in Sustainability, and a B.Arch. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heliataheri/
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