SARABEN>STUDIO
Architecture and design studio
Based in London and Leicester
Saraben>studio is an award winning architecture and design studio founded by Sara Shafiei and Ben Cowd in 2007. Saraben’s design practice includes teaching, research and experimental architectural design. Projects include residential developments and schools to sustainable floating homes, retail, furniture and exhibition design. The studios work has been widely published and exhibitied throughout the world including The Venice Biennale, The Royal Academy of Art and the Museum of Art and Design, New York.
Sara Shafiei and Ben Cowd are both Senior Lecturers in Architecture: Specialising in digital design, fabrication and Islamic design, patterns and Geometry. Their work on the ‘Crown of Esfahan’ in Iran has led the studio to work, teach and lecture extensively in the Middle East.
SARA SHAFIEI
Director saraben-studio
Member of horHizon
Senior Lecturer The Leicester School of Architecture
Visiting Lecturer Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture - Paris
Sara Shafiei graduated from the Bartlett school of Architecture (UCL) under the tuition of Dr Marcos Cruz and Dr. Marjan Colletti with distinction in design and thesis. She was the Bartlett recipient of the Sir Banister Fletcher Bronze Medal for the highest marks awarded in final year examination, 3D REID prize for the best final year diploma project, and the Hamilton Associates prize for excellence in design process.
Sara’s work delves into the relationship of new architectural interventions in order to produce a contemporary style rich in textures, patterns and layers. She has been able to travel to research these interests further in 2008, through receiving the KPF/ Architecture Foundation Public Space Travel Award.
In 2008 she received TECU Architecture Award for her innovative use of copper cladding for her project entitled ‘Theatre for Magicians’. Here her interests in excess baroque ornamentation translated into a project that harnessed the use of modern technology to create an ornamental theatre influenced by magic and illusion.
Her work has been exhibited internationally including exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art Summer show 2008, 2009 and 2010, where she was awarded the Royal Academy of Arts drawing prize, The Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York, Kate's Paperie, New York and 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Shafiei has also been published in Bartlett Design: Speculating with Architecture, Slash: Paper Under the Knife, AD-Protoarchitecture (edited by Bob Sheil), Wallpaper Magazine, London Interiors Magazine, Icon Magazine, BD and The Architects Journal. She is one of the authors at Deletedscenes magazine and in 2009 co-authored “Digital architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands”- a book celebrating provocative projects from a young generation of digitally enabled designers.
Her work with bamboo is also noted worldwide with exhibitions in Bogata, Lima, Kassel and London as well as publications including ‘Visionary Bamboo Designs for Ecological Living’ (co-published by INBAR in Beijing) and ‘Innovation in Bamboo’ (Sandu Publication).
Sara formed ‘saraben studio’ with Ben Cowd in 2007. Their self-titled exhibition at dreamspace gallery won critical acclaim in late 2007.
Sara is director of saraben-studio and a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at The Leicester School of Architecture (LSA) and visiting lecturer at Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture - Paris. She is a visiting critic at The Architecture Association (AA), Bartlett School of Architecture, Westminster University, Oxford Brookes, London South Bank University, Cardiff University and has run workshops at the AA, and Brighton University.
BEN COWD
Director saraben-studio
Senior Lecturer The Leicester School of Architecture
Member of horHizon
Ben Cowd studied Architecture at the Bartlett, UCL under the supervision of Marjan Colletti and Marcus Cruz in Unit 20. During his two years in Diploma, Unit 20 was awarded the prize for best unit by Paul Finch in 2006 and again the following year by Lord Richard Rogers. His final thesis project The Observatory and ticket office, Rome has been published internationally and praised in Wallpaper magazine’s Graduate Directory, The Financial Times, Blueprint, Bartlett Design: Speculating with Architecture, Slash: Paper Under the Knife and the AD-Exubernace. It has been widely exhibited since graduating including The Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition, The Venice Biennale 2010 and the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York.
Between 2007-2009 Ben worked for Foster + Partners in London on projects in London, Switzerland, Libya and Morocco. His drawings and models for the BMCE Bank, Morocco was exhibited with Norman Foster and Spencer De Grey at the Royal Academy of Arts: Summer Exhibition 2009 and published in Foster 40. Ben Cowd is interviewed in the film 'How much does your building weight Mr Foster?' which was released at the Berlin Film Festival 2010 and due for release in the UK in February 2011.
Following his work with F+P Ben established saraben>studio with Sara Shafiei and staged the saraben>exhibition at the Dreamspace Gallery, London. In 2009 Ben collaborated with .horHizon member Tobias Klein on the model Contoured Embodiment for the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition.
Ben Cowd is director of saraben>studio and a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at The Leicester School of Architecture (LSA). He is a visiting critic at The Architecture Association (AA), Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture - Paris, Bartlett School of Architecture, Westminster University, Oxford Brookes, London South Bank University, Cardiff University and has run workshops at the Bartlett (UCL), AA, and Brighton University.