Who Are We?

We are Swap. We are a group of architects led by Farnaz Manzour & Mehdi Taheri. Our studio is located in Tehran. Swap is our ongoing project.

And Swap is our ongoing Project.

Farnaz Manzour & Mehdi Taheri

How Did We Get Started?

Back in 2019, after graduating from university and the CAAI School of Architecture, we decided to start our studio. This is an exciting stage in our architectural life, as this is just the beginning.

What Do We Do?

We are trying to find Magic in the Ordinary.

At Swap Office, we are captivated by the tension between the mundane and the extraordinary. Our work begins with the unassuming—those overlooked, basic elements of architecture and urban life—and transforms them into sites of wonder, interaction, and meaning. Guided by an obsession with normality and its latent absurdity, we explore architecture as both a functional practice and an expressive art form.

Archello Project

2019-2025

Archello Project

2019-2021

What Do We Stand For?

This approach allows us to craft spaces and interventions that provoke thought, spark curiosity, and invite reinterpretation. Whether through the adaptive reuse of materials or the layering of history and contemporary narratives, we challenge conventional boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in the specificity of place.

This approach challenges us to think beyond architecture as an object or solution, pushing us instead toward creating lived, evolving experiences.

Studio Work

Our Journey

(2022-2024) We are trying to question the ritual way of consuming, perceiving, and designing the things around us, the spaces and buildings (old or new). We are trying to neither repeat ourselves nor the ones before us.

(2019-2021) We believe that within every context, there are unanswered questions (problems), and right there we can find what helps us to answer them in the best way possible. As a matter of fact, not only are we able to answer the question, but we also give something more to the users, the public, the neighborhood, or the city.

Studio Work Studio Work

Achievements

We have won some competitions and accolades over the last few years, and a few of them make us really proud. (You can find them in the "Projects" section.)