Sophiya joins Code Studio as an architect, city planner, and urban designer with over a decade of experience shaping public spaces, neighbourhoods, and civic life across the United States, Canada, and India.
Working across both public and private sectors, her practice spans neighbourhood planning, downtown revitalization, streetscapes, public-realm design, placemaking, cultural districts, business improvement districts, and community development. Her work brings together design, policy, and implementation to create places that are both purposeful and rooted in their local context.
Grounded in architecture and planning, Sophiya approaches the city through the lens of everyday life—how people move, gather, build livelihoods, and form connections to a place. Her experience ranges from borough-scale initiatives in New York City to neighbourhood-scale urban design and placemaking projects in Toronto, with a particular interest in immigrant communities, cultural landscapes, public life, and the social and economic forces that shape neighbourhood identity. Having lived and worked across diverse urban contexts, she brings an international perspective and a strong sensitivity to the cultural, spatial, and human dimensions of the built environment.
Sophiya is based in Toronto and works at the intersection of planning, design, and civic life. She is drawn to the ways art, architecture, food, fashion, culture, and everyday encounters contribute to the character of a city. At the heart of her practice is a belief that great places are rigorous yet imaginative, inclusive yet distinctive—and, above all, designed with the people who inhabit them.
