Mersiha Veledar

Mersiha Veledar, AIA is an educator, a registered architect and the acting associate dean at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, with a passion for experimental design. She has been teaching and coordinating a wide range of award-winning studios and seminars at The Cooper Union School of Architecture since 2005, grounded in the development of universal elements, civic framework and housing.

The foundation of her professional work and pedagogy in architectonics and building-integrated housing originates in her thesis, Architecture Can Heal: Universal Elements and The Common Ground (advised by Lebbeus Woods & Anders Abraham). This award-winning project explores how surreal elements of nature—light, air, water, and wind—can shape the design of architectural elements ranging from walls, columns, doors, stairs and windows to quotidian objects such as chairs and tables, as a universal alphabet of design fundamentals.

Through her independent research and design work, she continues to develop and refine intimately scaled architectonic elements while testing new spatial possibilities through projects that bridge experimental concepts and built form. Her professional portfolio spans a wide range of public and private programs—from schools and museums to the intimate and playful details of domestic residences—with built work in New York, New Jersey, and abroad.