Book Review: Noushin Ehsan's new memoir shares the woman behind the architect
By Kate Mazade
"I wanted to serve humanity through architecture, a lofty goal for a young child—a goal that remained with me through adulthood. To me, architecture was not a profession, but a call to public service, and it remains so to this day."
Noushin Ehsan, AIA, is an award-winning Iranian-born, American architect. A life-long traveler, Ehsan studied, worked, and lectured all across the world, seeking friends, community, and comfort in design in many different settings and cultures. In 2022, she shared her life story in Noushin, A Memoir: The Making of a Woman Architect.
Her education, resume, and accolades are impressive, having studied at the Decorative School of Fine Arts and School of Architecture at Tehran University, Beaux-Arts in Paris, and UCLA Architecture and Planning. She held numerous faculty positions, including at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Architectural Association School of Architecture, and London Polytechnic Institute. Ehsan co-founded and served as the managing director of BEB Consultants, opening offices in New York, London, Paris, and Tehran—with projects in the United States, England, Holland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Later in life, she founded Accessible Architecture PC in New York City, working to bring small-scale, à la carte design work with a civic conscience to the masses.
She often lectured about the Spirit of Space, a concept deeply inspired by her Bahá'í Faith and metaphysical experience at the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi. She is currently working on a manuscript detailing the concept.
"I now know that my life has been influenced by a unique culture that combined with my religion, has shaped me into the person I am today. No matter how many different places I live or visit, or the numerous people I meet from other backgrounds, the seeds of my personality, my beliefs, and my actions are all firmly rooted."
Often throughout her life, Ehsan reconnected with acquaintances half a world away—or made instantaneous new ones—and greeted them with warmth and familiarity, proving just how small the world is when you seek out friendship wherever you are.
More like diary entries than chapters, the stories are broken in little chunks—some a single memory and some an entire year summed up in 2 sentences. The memories are easy to read, changing pace to keep things moving. It is a representation of all the little moments of our lives that make up the person we are, no matter how insignificant they may seem to others.
Both personal and professional, the memoir covers great successes and moments of light intermingled with tragedies and hardship. The book is a testament to perseverance, to starting over early and often, and to believing that you're never too far in to make a change.
A must-read for women in the architecture industry, Eshan's memoir doesn't separate her professional endeavors from the life she leads amongst other people. The interconnected stories go to show that we are the sum of our experiences—ones that cannot be compartmentalized—and that finding peace with and in who we are comes from seeing our lives as a whole.
"Putting my life journey into words has helped me to reach back to that young girl who existed so long ago, find her again, and befriend her…Although I thought she was gone forever, the pages of this memoir have reconnected me to the inner child who still lives in my heart."
Noushin, A Memoir: The Making of a Woman Architect is available through Amazon.