Zabie Mustafa (left) and Neda Kakhsaz, partners in business and life, bring a wealth of professional experience and emotional intuition to their three-year-old practice. Born in Tehran and raised in LA, Kakhsaz honed her skills at the AD100 firm Studio Shamshiri. Mustafa, a licensed architect, grew up in New York, immersed in his family’s Uzbek and Afghan heritage, before heading to California, where his path led him to the AD100 firm The Archers. “Our office is rooted in diversity and multiculturalism,” Kakhsaz says of MUKA’s foundational principles. “We honor both Western and Eastern philosophies for living with meaning and purpose.” Mustafa seconds the notion: “We reject conventional approaches with an inclusive, unbiased attitude toward building togetherness in every project we take on.” Today, the couple (pictured at home) are applying that ethos to a ground-up residence on an Ojai olive orchard, an outdoor pavilion for a nonprofit foundation in Joshua Tree, and the restoration of a midcentury house in Pasadena. studio-muka.com
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