Iyad Abou Gaida is a Lebanese architect and researcher. Iyad worked for offices based in Tokyo, Beirut and New York. Iyad’s research engages ecologies of human and non-human beings to address aesthetic and socio-political urgencies for architecture and urbanism across dimensions and geographies. Iyad is a Co-founder of “EcoRove: Shifting territories and the displaced,” a collaborative project that studies living beings in the Critical Zone. He was awarded the 2020 visual art grant from the Arab Foundation for Arts and Culture to research Lebanese cedar trees and the impact of the climate crisis on their biology, landscapes, migration, history, and cultural identity. Iyad received his B.Arch from Lebanese American University and his M.S Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia GSAPP.