# Are We Designing Blind? Why Architecture Must Measure Its Impact – Ep 125 with Dr. Helia Taheri Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348/are-we-designing-blind-why-architecture-must-measure-its-impact-ep-125-with-dr-helia-taheri Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348/are-we-designing-blind-why-architecture-must-measure-its-impact-ep-125-with-dr-helia-taheri.md Podcast: [Better Buildings For Humans](https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348) Published: 2026-02-25T13:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bbfh6/episodes/Are-We-Designing-Blind--Why-Architecture-Must-Measure-Its-Impact--Ep-125-with-Dr--Helia-Taheri-e3fcci2 Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/e6dc7530/podcast/play/115798018/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-1-20%2F418495317-44100-2-c85501c997f97.m4a Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348/episodes/are-we-designing-blind-why-architecture-must-measure-its-impact-ep-125-with-dr-helia-taheri Duration seconds: 2029 ## Resource This week on Better Buildings for Humans, host Joe Menchefski sits down with Dr. Helia Taheri, Research and Insights Lead at Arcadis, for an inspiring deep dive into human-centric design, evidence-based practice, and the future of our cities. Born and raised in Iran and now working in the U.S., Helia shares how her artistic upbringing, architectural training, and PhD research shaped her mission to bridge design and behavioral science. From retail prototypes to global workplace research, she explores how culture, climate, and community shape the way we experience buildings. The conversation also tackles post-occupancy evaluation, data gaps in architecture, and her passion for creating walkable, connected cities. This episode is a powerful call to measure our impact, design with intention, and build flexible spaces that truly serve human needs. More About Dr. Helia Taheri Dr. Helia Taheri is an award-winning mixed-methods researcher with 8+ years of experience in strategizing and conducting human-centric research in multidisciplinary teams to have a positive impact on people, the planet, and business. She considers herself a pollinator between different fields of architecture, human behavior, and sustainability and commits to bridging the gap between industry and academia. Helia has a passion for learning and distributing knowledge and is actively engaged in presenting at conferences and publishing articles that connect the latest research with practice. She is a guest lecturer at universities such as Carnegie Mellon, USC, and Portland State University and a mentor to increase awareness among younger researchers about their important role in achieving data-driven design in architecture. Helia has a Ph.D. in human-centric research from North Carolina State University, an… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348/episodes/are-we-designing-blind-why-architecture-must-measure-its-impact-ep-125-with-dr-helia-taheri/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-buildings-for-humans-6593348/are-we-designing-blind-why-architecture-must-measure-its-impact-ep-125-with-dr-helia-taheri.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.