Earlier this year, Sandro Valentino was invited to form part of an international judging panel for the Iran Thesis of the Year Award 2025. The award – now in its fifth year – celebrates exceptional academic work in the fields of architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture where Bachelor’s and Master’s graduates from across Iran are invited to submit their theses for consideration. The Thesis of the Year Award is one of the key yearly activities organised by ‘Architects-Together’, a grassroots collective of architects which conducts multiple pro-bono programs aimed at enriching architectural discourse and practice in Iran.

The selection process for the Thesis of the Year Award began with a national jury which shortlisted the most outstanding 5 to 7 Thesis projects, after which the international jury deliberated to select the winner and runner up. Sandro joined Nasrine Seraji, founder of Paris based Atelier Seraji, Bureau Spectacular founder Jimenez Lai, Associate Professor at Washington State University and Director of Morphogenesis Lab Mona Ghandi, and Nadia Tromp, founder of Ntsika Architects for the international jury online jury session, which was held in March.

The winning project – ‘Unity Springs’ by Amir Masoud Aghajani Zade – aimed to unite cultures through the architecture of water storage and management, whilst Mohammad Ebrahimi’s ‘A Place for Living Together’ – a students’ dorm complex located in Isfahan – was chosen as the runner up.

The Iran Thesis of the Year Award was organized by Mohamadreza Ghodousi, Mehdi Gerami, Nashid Nabian, Alireza Taghaboni, and Golnaz Bahrami.