Micropolitan Studio is a research-based art and design collective founded by Delara Rahim, Francisco “Pancho” Brown, and Jimmy Pan, working between New York and Sydney. Rooted in the belief that small interventions can spark large impact in cities, communities, and ecosystems, the studio creates experimental multimedia projects, public art installations, and architecture. Their practice draws on color, materiality, data, and performance to explore bodies in space and the spaces around bodies, particularly in the public realm.
Recent and ongoing projects include the Playgrounds and Fear series (2020–2025), exhibited at La MaMa Galleria (New Inc DEMO Day, New York, 2022) and published by the Canadian Centre for Architecture for the Keep Safe season, Uprooted, exhibited at LAVA space (Athens, 2023), and the Ping Pong Diplomacy series, which received an Honorary Mention at the Mextropoli–Arquine Magazine competition in Mexico City and will be reinterpreted at La Alameda Park as part of the Mextropoli Festival. Micropolitan Studio is a member of the New Museum’s NEWINC and has presented its work at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Cornell AAP.
- Services
- Spatial Design
- Print Works
- Public art installations
- Projection Art / Video Art
- Performance
- Textile design
- Graphic storytelling
- Interactive installations
- Design consultancy
- Clients & Collaborators
- NEWINC, New Museum
- JFK Airport
- Polyline to Press
- Yazmany Arboleda Studio
- E'lan Ensemble Theater Group
- Mujeres en Movimiento
- Little Amal Theater Company
- Galleries
- LAVA Gallery, Athens
- Tin Shed Gallery, University of Sydney
- a83 Gallery, New York
- Clive Davis Gallery, New York
- City Group Gallery, New York
- La Mama, New York
Our Process
Community and Public Space
Our studio’s mission is to bring human stories to the built environment. We collaborate and support communities in performances and art projects in public spaces.
Data and languages of expression
Our studio is multilingual, multicultural and cross disciplinary. This gives us the opportunity to collaborate and support communities and to create new languages and canvases for public expression.
Handcraft and Technology
We look at the design field broadly across scales and disciplines by haptic refashioning of materials and technologies. We are curious about both technology and handcard, and often the relationship between the two.
Color and Materials
We specialize in color and material research which takes on forms of print, digital, physical and environmental media.
Team
Delara Rahim
Delara Rahim is an Iranian-American interdisciplinary artist, architectural designer and educator originally from Tehran, Iran.
She works at a medium that she refers to as ‘textile methodologies’, a process of space making that is informed by and situated at the intersection of handwork, technology and the expression of identity and culture. She finds inspiration in materials as well as the poetry inherent in the process of making. She holds a Master of Design Studies in Art, Design and the Public domain from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California. Parallel to her practice, she teaches design studios focusing on the relationship of mediums and public space. She has taught at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Harvard GSD Design Discovery program as well as University of Sydney School of Architecture and Planning.
Francisco Brown
Francisco “Pancho” Brown is an architectural designer and a creative consultant originally from Managua, Nicaragua.
His experience expand more than thirteen years in humanitarian and commercial architecture, journalism, and research. He holds a Master in Design Studies in Critical Conservation from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Pancho worked as an International Architect for the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kabul, Afghanistan, where still consults independently. He is a Registered Architect in Nicaragua. He holds a Masters in Architecture at the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE) located in New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus (RPI); and a Bachelors in Architecture from the Catholic University in Managua, Nicaragua.
Jimmy Pan
Jimmy Pan is a Registered Architect, Researcher, and storyteller from New York City.
He holds a Master in Design Studies in Risk and Resilience from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union. He has practiced with Rebuild By Design, Gensler, and G3 Architecture Interiors Planning on a range of projects, including urban planning, policy writing, urban design, mid and large scale mixed use developments, high end residential apartments, and corporate interior fit-outs. He has most recently contributed research on resilience policy and planning with Rebuild By Design, assisting in a white paper titled “Resilient Infrastructure for New York State” which advanced the $3 Billion “Restore Mother Nature” Bond Act passed earlier this year by Governor Andrew Cuomo