m e r sh
and l ee
Office Statement
We started to work as a team in 2017, and we named it mershandlee. This is a place that we explore, read, write, research, collect, draw, model, analyze, render, animate, teach, collaborate, design, and practice architecture. mershandlee believes in the potential of architecture objects to speculate, explore, and re-originate the real. We investigate the current potentialities of architecture through the qualities of our world.
Founding Partners
Lida Badafareh is an architect and an educator practicing in Vienna. Previously she was a lecturer at the urban design institute at the University of Innsbruck, where she taught design courses as well as urban design seminars. She is also a lecturer at Raumklasse at Universität der Künste Berlin. She has worked as an architect and urban design researcher for several architecture offices, including Coop Himmelb(l)au. She holds a Master of Arts in Architecture and Urban Design from Städelschule, where her graduate thesis received the AIV Master Thesis Award.
Mehrshad Atashi is an architect and an educator based in Vienna. He previously worked as a lecturer at the Institute of urban design at the University of Innsbruck, where he led design courses and urban design seminars. He holds a B. Arch from Università Degli Studi di Firenze and a Master of Arts in Architecture and Urban Design from Städelschule. Previously, he worked in the offices of Sou Fujimoto Architects in Tokyo and Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna.