In a world where architectural forms are often read as reflections of culture and climate, a new theory is emerging — one that suggests our buildings may mirror something much deeper: ourselves.
Saudi architect Ibrahim Nawaf Joharji, founder of INJ Architects, has published a compelling research study exploring how the physical features of human beings — their faces, proportions, and even inherited traits — may unconsciously shape the environments they build. The paper connects facial morphology, clothing traditions, and architectural preferences, proposing that the structures we inhabit are not merely cultural expressions, but genetic echoes of who we are.
Over the course of a multi-year investigation blending design analysis, anthropological observation, and visual pattern recognition, Joharji’s work evolved into a full conceptual framework. The study spans 15 analytical dimensions, ranging from vernacular architecture and religious forms, to fashion, posture, and regional perception of beauty. It includes case studies of long-standing civilizations, such as North Africa, East Asia, Scandinavia, and the Arabian Peninsula — highlighting how certain facial symmetries and bodily aesthetics may correspond with architectural curvature, massing, and ornamentation.
But this is not a philosophical metaphor. The research draws inspiration from cognitive science, biometric mapping, and even Islamic firasah — the traditional art of reading character through physical appearance — to support its premise.
Published first on the independent architecture platform ArchUp.net, the research introduces a new theoretical term:
Archigenetics, a blend of “architecture” and “genetics.”
Joharji defines it as: “the belief that we don’t just build what we like — we build what we are.”
According to Joharji, Archigenetics opens a new horizon in architectural thinking. It encourages architects and urbanists to reconsider beauty not as a detached ideal, but as a biologically-informed instinct — one shaped by thousands of years of environmental adaptation, bodily memory, and cultural codification.
As founder and principal of INJ Architects, a Saudi firm known for its innovative, high-end architecture, Joharji hopes the theory will inspire a new generation of design thought that acknowledges the human body not only as user, but as unseen author of space.
The theory is already gaining traction in academic and design circles, and is available in full at:
�� https://injarch.com/featured_item/archigenetics
