Iyas Shahin is a Syrian multidisciplinary designer and architectural researcher. He co-founded IW-Lab as a platform for creativity at the intersection of architecture and society. He was nominated for the Mohamed Makiya Award for Architectural Personality of the Year in 2020 and received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2024. His projects integrate heritage and spatial justice, with a focus on Syria, including documentary storytelling on Damascus. His writing and research combine personal narrative with critical analysis. From this practice, he has written essays on architecture as a tool of resistance, testimonies on spatial recovery after war and research diaries rooted in place. He approaches architectural practice not only as a profession but as a way of understanding the world — where materials and places meet the stories of communities, and maps become living documents.