Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi
Education
University of Pennsylvania
PhD, Architecture
University of Pennsylvania
MS, Architecture
National University of Iran
Master of Architecture
National University of Iran
Bachelor of Architecture
Contact
About
Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi is an endowed professor of architecture at the University of Oklahoma’s Gibbs College of Architecture. He earned his undergraduate degree from the National University of Iran (1975) and Master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (1980s), specializing in design theory and architectural history. Dr. Bozorgi founded OU’s PhD Program in Planning, Design, and Construction and established the Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture. His research examines the morphology of architectural and urban forms across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, analysing how traditional spatial practices adapt to contemporary urban development. Drawing on 40 years of professional experience with leading American and French firms, he has contributed to major projects throughout three continents. A Presidential Professor and Graham Foundation grant recipient, his scholarship includes “The Philadelphia House: Organic Architecture and Placemaking in Chestnut Hill” (2023), “Medieval Courtyard Design: Converging Urban Morphologies from Europe to the Middle East” (Routledge, Dec. 2025), and “Architecture of Place: The Hidden Grammar of Integration,” which presents his revolutionary discovery of a universal three-tier spatial system through exclusive field research since 2012, challenging traditional architectural scholarship and transforming the field from aesthetic analysis to spatial syntax.
New Book Project
Medieval Courtyard Design: Converging Urban Morphologies from Europe to the Middle East. Lead Author and Editor-in-Chief: Khosrow Bozorgi.
Description
This groundbreaking study examines courtyard architecture across Paris, Florence, Siena, Granada, and Yazd to reveal how the deliberate creation of emptiness—the “bounded void”—functions as architecture’s primary generative principle. Moving beyond conventional object-based analysis, the book demonstrates that architecture’s essence lies not in built form but in calibrated absence. Through rigorous comparative analysis, readers discover how courtyards operate as environmental mediators, social organizers, and cosmological instruments across diverse cultures. The study reveals striking morphological convergences that emerge through parallel evolution rather than stylistic diffusion. Drawing on spatial cognition research, urban morphology, and phenomenological analysis, the book establishes void-focused methodology as a new theoretical framework. This paradigm shifts from analyzing solid to void transforms our understanding of both historical and contemporary spatial practice, uncovering universal principles that transcend geographic and temporal boundaries. Essential for architectural theorists questioning disciplinary orthodoxies, historians seeking alternatives to period-style categorization, and researchers investigating architecture’s cognitive dimensions. The work provides both radical historiographical revision and practical insights for contemporary designers engaging with density, sustainability, and social space.
Ongoing Research Book Project
This book reveals a systematic organizational principle that has governed successful urban architecture across fifteen centuries and four continents, fundamentally transforming how we understand spatial coordination in the built environment. Through comparative analytical methodology applied to architectural documentation from Iran, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, and Pre-Columbian New Mexico, this study demonstrates that diverse architectural traditions employ a consistent three-dimensional framework: transitional zones mediating public and private realms, intermediate chambers organizing specialized activities, and elevated quarters maintaining oversight while preserving privacy. A Safavid caravanserai in Kerman, Roman underground quarters in Tunisia, medieval districts in Fez, Hanseatic civic complexes in Lübeck, and Ancestral Puebloan ceremonial centers in Chaco Canyon all manifest this organizational logic. Despite radical differences in climate, culture, and construction, these buildings achieve coordination through identical spatial principles adapted to local conditions, dissolving conventional typological boundaries and revealing them as surface variations of deeper structural unity. The implications extend beyond historical analysis to contemporary understanding of spatial design. This organizational framework offers new interpretive tools for analyzing how successful urban architecture coordinates multiple functions across different scales, providing fresh insights into the enduring effectiveness of traditional spatial strategies. The book establishes innovative analytical approaches for architectural scholarship while demonstrating how systematic comparative analysis can reveal universal principles operating beneath cultural specificity.
Professional Credentials
Association for the Study of Middle East and Africa. (2014- Present).
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. (2014- Present).
Selected Publications
Bozorgi, Khosrow (Dec. 2025). “Medieval Courtyard Design: Converging Urban Morphologies from Europe to the Middle East”. Published by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London. ISBN 9781041090335
Bozorgi, Khosrow & Gaddi, Keith (July 2023). “The Philadelphia House: Organic Architecture and Placemaking in Chestnut Hill”. Published by Roman & Littlefield. Lanham. Boulder. New York. London. LCCN 2023009553 | ISBN 9781538172568 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538172582 (epub)
Bozorgi, K & Lischer-Katz, Z. (2020). “Using 3D/VR for Research and Cultural Heritage Preservation”: Project Update on the Virtual Ganjali Khan Project. Journal of Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture. https://doi.org/10.1515/pdtc-2020-0017
Bozorgi, K. (2020). Preservation and Digital Technology. Walkthrough Ganjali Khan. Feb. 2020. [Video]. https://bit.ly/3IwZLWq
Bozorgi, K. (2018). Desert Utopia: The Hidden Unity of Iranian Architecture Conceptualization behind the Making of a Documentary Film. American International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(2), 15-30.
Bozorgi, K. & Drab, T. (2003, July). “Reevaluating Middle Eastern Contribution to Built Environment in Europe.” Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education.
Featured Contracts, Grants, and Sponsored Research
Bozorgi, K., (PI), “Appropriate Architectural Representations for a U.S. Embassy of the Future using Parametric Digital Design,” Sponsored by the College of International Studies, The University of Oklahoma, $6,000. (August 20, 2018 – December 10, 2018).
Bozorgi, K., (PI), “Philadelphia Country House, Concept of Placemaking”. The Grant for this Research project was awarded by Graham Foundation for $7,500 (Grant #03063). Research Abstract [Video].
Research and Creative Activities in Progress
“Passive Ventilation and Temperature Control Systems for Free-Running Buildings: Implementation of Wind catchers in Contemporary Design” (2014- Present).
International research in collaboration with researchers from OU College of Engineering, Architectural Association London, Oslo University, Qatar Arab Engineering Bureau, and Office of Norman Foster.