“I was so scared when they were building it. There was always...

“I was so scared when they were building it. There was always a doubt that it would work the same way that it did in my mind. When they sent me pictures of the construction, sometimes I wouldn’t even open the emails. I’d just move the images to a folder named ‘Bridge.’ It’s surreal that this once existed in my mind. I’ve seen it one million times on a computer monitor. I know every single one of these pipes, and I remember the moment that I decided where to place them. Now I am so much smaller than something that once only existed in my imagination. I can stand inside of it. It feels like being inside a movie that you directed or a book that you wrote. And you can’t help but feel powerful.”

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Leila Araghian is the young architect behind Tehran’s recently completed Tabiat Bridge. Construction of the bridge was completed in 2014 despite the difficulties of international sanctions. The bridge has become a cultural and physical centerpiece of Tehran, and Leila captured the imagination of the architecture world by winning the right to design it at the age of 26.

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(Tehran, Iran)