Moein Nodehi: From War and Exile to Reimagining How We Build

“I grew up with my parents telling me stories about the ancient Persian civilisation… and I created this huge passion for ancient civilisations.” Moein Nodehi Moein Nodehi Constructive Voices Podcast Cover He was born in the middle of war. As conflict tore through Iran, Moein Nodehi’s family fled in search of safety, eventually ending up in an immigration camp in Sweden. But even in those uncertain early years, another world was being built inside him. His parents kept hope alive by telling stories of ancient Persia — its gardens, palaces, civic systems and extraordinary buildings. Those stories stayed with him. So did the contrast he later witnessed when he returned to Iran as a boy: the visible scars of war set alongside the brilliance of ancient architecture. That collision of destruction and civilisation shaped him. It made him question how we build, why we build, and what kind of world our buildings are really creating. “What happened to me in the pyramids was deeper than what I can really explain with words.” Moein Nodehi Biotonomy's visual of green walls Years later, that questioning would take him from engineering school to major construction projects in Dubai, and then far beyond the mainstream industry altogether. Disillusioned by what he saw — buildings celebrated as symbols of innovation while human and environmental costs were ignored — Moein chose a different route. He walked away, travelled widely, learned from grassroots projects around the world, and eventually founded Biotonomy: a company focused on nature-based architecture that treats buildings as living systems rather than machines. “I was really obsessed about how we are building our buildings, our cities, and really our civilisation.” Moein Nodehi In this episode of Constructive Voices, Jackie De Burca speaks with Moein about exile, ancient wisdom, modern cities, water, heat, resilience, and why nature may hold many of the answers we’ve forgotten. Moein Nodehi Biotonomy aerial view of green roofs “The design decisions that we take for our cities, for our buildings, have a direct impact on our brain waves and our wellbeing.” Moein Nodehi In this episode Jackie and Moein explore how buildings can work with nature rather than against it — and why that shift matters not just for carbon and climate, but for