holesum studio

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©2025 holesum studio

Holesum Studio is an interdisciplinary architecture, research and design studio formed out of the Yale School of Architecture by consistent collaborators Azza Aboualam, Dimitri Brand, and James Coleman.  


Photo: Jessie Coleman

Holesum Studio was founded in 2021 with the intent of incorporating living and built environments and working in a collaborative way. Holesum believes the actionable and distinct quality of its parts help to inform one another towards a progressive and comprehensive method of design. Our practice blends historical, sociological, and ecological research with technical application to make objects and spaces that invite their users to engage with broader environmental contexts. The studio has experience in residential and commercial architecture, as well as graphic, product, and exhibition design. For a complete portfolio of work, inquire at team@holesum.studio.




Dimitri Brand
Dimitri is an architect, fabricator, writer, and researcher as well as the Director of Built Projects at Holesum Studio. He holds a bachelor’s in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a master’s in architecture from Yale University. He was recently a Bass Fellow at the University of Cambridge where he researched the relationship between architecture and the environment in early science fiction literature. Dimitri previously worked at KieranTimberlake in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and OPAL in Belfast, Maine. Previous to architecture he worked as a carpenter and fabricator for five years.



Azza Aboualam 
Azza is a designer, educator, and researcher, as well as the Director of Research at Holesum Studio. She is a Professor of Architecture at Zayed University in Dubai and was recently the curator of the United Arab Emirates pavilion at the 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale. Her scholarly interests include the intersection of memory, architecture and society in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Her work with the UAE’s Ministry of Culture’s Architecture Initiative was published in the book titled In Search of Spaces of Coexistence: An Architect’s Journey (Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, 2019). Azza also contributed as a researcher in Building Sharjah, co-edited by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi and Todd Reisz (‎Birkhauser, 2021), and Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai, written by Todd Reisz (Stanford University Press, 2020).  Additionally Azza has been published in AA Files 78, the New York Review of Architecture, Paprika!, among other publications.



James Coleman
James is an architectural designer, artist, writer, and educator as well as the Director of Special Projects at Holesum Studio. He holds three degrees in architecture including a bachelor’s from the University at Buffalo and a master’s from Yale University. He has worked professionally in art design, fabrication, and installation for the studio of Sarah Oppenheimer and Camber Studio, and in architectural design and research for Carlton Architecture and Eisenman Architects respectively. He was a founding member of the New York Review of Architecture and has issue edited for various publications including Paprika! and Retrospecta. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute and an Adjunct Instructor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Hillier College of Architecture and Design. His research focuses on the aesthetics of ecological design and the architectural repercussions of historical landscapes. His art practice is concerned with the impact of human behavior and movement on land form.


Photos: Jessie Coleman