FOUNDER · DESIGN-BUILDER · SYSTEMS THINKER
Omid Hajishirmohammadi
Bringing more than 25 years of architecture, construction and entrepreneurial experience to the development of adaptable construction systems for Earth and the Moon.
Omid is the founder of 4 Earth 2 Mars and the originator of CATs&DOG®—a geometry-driven, modular, reconfigurable and serviceable construction-system framework.
His journey connects a multigenerational family tradition in architecture and construction with professional practice, post-disaster rebuilding, entrepreneurship, international reinvention and a long-standing exploration of geometry, origami and circular design.
A PERSONAL JOURNEY
The opportunity to live twice.
“I sometimes feel that I have had the opportunity to live twice. The first life taught me how to design, build, lead and create economic value. The second is my attempt to place everything I learned in service of original innovation and meaningful impact.”
Omid’s journey is not a simple movement from one career to another. By 2009, he had already completed many of the steps people pursue across an entire professional life: education, qualification, company formation, leadership, innovation, financial success and preparation for an eventual exit.
A life-threatening experience in Tehran in December 2009 initiated four years of reflection and preparation. In 2013, at the age of 37, he left the professional and social environment he knew and began rebuilding his life abroad.
Building capability and creating economic value.
FIRST LIFE · 1976–2013
Learning, building and leading
From a multigenerational family tradition in construction to academic architecture, professional certification, post-disaster rebuilding, company formation, project delivery, innovation, leadership and business success.
Not an immediate departure—a considered transformation.
THE THRESHOLD · 2009–2013
Four years of transition
A life-threatening experience became the beginning of a deliberate transition: reassessing success, preparing to leave Iran and searching for an environment with greater freedom to learn, grow and contribute.
Turning accumulated capability toward a longer mission.
SECOND LIFE · 2013–PRESENT
Learning again and beginning from scratch
Studying a new language, living across cultures, rebuilding a professional identity and creating a new venture largely alone as an expat—this time focused on developing original innovation and pursuing measurable impact.
The two lives are not disconnected. The first created experience, capability and confidence. The second asks what those qualities should ultimately serve.
FIRST LIFE · 1976–2013
Inheriting a building tradition—and learning to lead it.
Before pursuing original construction-system innovation, Omid spent decades learning how architecture, construction, entrepreneurship and project delivery work in practice.
A multigenerational relationship with building
Architecture and construction entered Omid’s life long before university.
Across generations, members of his family worked in building and construction—not through one formally established family company, but through knowledge, practice and responsibility passed from one generation to the next.
Omid’s grandfather had learned from his own father and began taking Omid to construction sites during childhood. Rather than treating him only as a child, he gave him small responsibilities, including observing the work and reporting on what the workers had completed. Those experiences created an early sense of confidence, accountability and belonging within construction.
The first academic architect in the family
Omid became the first member of his family to study architecture academically, transforming an inherited relationship with construction into a formally educated profession.
His sister later followed him into architecture and became a certified professional working in construction supervision.
Another adult family member began studying architecture at university in 2024, while the youngest generation is already exploring buildings through play and curiosity.
01 — EARLY ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
1990s
Geometry appeared instinctively in Omid’s earliest designs, making them recognisable even without his name. Architectural education turned this natural design language into a conscious skill, while observing nature deepened his understanding of structure and form.
02 — RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE GRADUATION
1996–1998
While studying architecture, Omid designed and helped construct a five-storey building in Tehran. The experience moved him beyond academic exercises and gave him early responsibility for translating architectural ideas into coordination, decisions and physical construction.
03 — COMPANY FORMATION AND DISASTER REBUILDING
2002-2004
Omid co-founded a construction cooperative with friends. The Avaj earthquake struck during the same month the company was formally launched, compelling the new team to act almost immediately. They moved into the affected region, lived in tents and helped reconstruct 17 destroyed homes.
04 — CONSTRUCTION LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
2005–2013
As CEO of 3rdMco, Omid led work across design, engineering, procurement and construction. The company delivered multiple projects while adopting methods including gas-pressure-welded reinforcement, soil nailing and post-tensioned concrete slabs.
05 — SUCCESS AND AN UNRESOLVED QUESTION
By 2013
By 2013, Omid had gained professional credibility, completed buildings, leadership experience and economic success. Yet disaster rebuilding and project-level innovation left him questioning why successful construction was not creating the systemic impact he sought.
Capability was not the same as impact.
Post-disaster rebuilding and years of professional construction taught Omid how to deliver projects, manage uncertainty and apply available innovations. They also revealed the limits of improving individual projects without changing the wider system.
The first life answered whether he could design, build, lead and create economic value. It did not yet answer how those capabilities could contribute to change at the scale he believed was necessary.
THE THRESHOLD · 2009–2013
A second life did not begin in a single moment.
It began with survival, followed by four years of questioning, preparation and deliberate change.
27.12.2009
TEHRAN
The moment that changed the question
On 27 December 2009, during a public protest in Tehran, Omid found himself in a life-threatening situation. A group of older women intervened and helped him reach safety.
He remembers the experience as more than survival. It forced him to reconsider what he would do with the life, capability and opportunities still available to him. Yet the decision to leave Iran and begin again did not happen immediately.
01 — Survival and reflection
December 2009
Surviving the event changed the question from what Omid had already achieved to what he should do with another opportunity to live and contribute.
02 — Reassessing success
2009–2010
Professional achievement and economic value no longer felt sufficient. Omid began questioning whether his existing environment allowed enough freedom to grow and pursue deeper impact.
03 — Preparing for change
2010–2013
The transition required time to reflect, prepare and responsibly close the first professional chapter. The direction became clearer even though the second life’s exact path remained unknown.
04 — Crossing the threshold
2013
At 37, Omid left Iran and the professional identity, network and familiarity he had built. He entered the second life not as an established CEO, but as someone prepared to learn and begin again.
“I survived in 2009, but it took four years to understand how I wanted to use that second opportunity. Leaving was not an escape into a finished future. It was a decision to create enough space to grow into one.”
The first life was complete. The second still had to be built.
The transition did not erase Omid’s previous experience. It separated capability from familiarity and required him to discover whether he could rebuild without the language, network, partners and professional standing that had supported his first success.
SECOND LIFE · 2013–PRESENT
Beginning again without the advantages of the first life.
The experience remained—but the familiar language, network, reputation, business partners and professional environment did not.
In his first life, Omid had built a company with friends in the country where he had grown up. In the second, he had to rebuild his professional identity largely alone as an expat.
The objective was no longer only to apply available construction innovations successfully. It was to create original approaches capable of contributing to deeper, system-level impact.
01 — Learning again
From 2013
A new language and unfamiliar environments
Omid began his international journey by studying English in the Philippines. Returning to the role of a learner changed the status and certainty he had previously known, but opened access to new cultures, ideas and possibilities.
03 — Rebuilding as an expat
The Netherlands
Creating a new professional foundation
In the Netherlands, Omid entered new entrepreneurial, construction, climate and space ecosystems without the professional standing he had built in Iran. Progress required rebuilding trust, networks and credibility one conversation and opportunity at a time.
02 — Resilience through another culture
2013–2017
Community after Typhoon Yolanda
Experiencing the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda and participating in relief efforts exposed Omid to communities rebuilding amid recurring disasters. Their resilience and collective action deepened his conviction that construction must empower people, not only deliver buildings.
04 — From applying innovation to creating it
2020–Present
A mission begins to take form
Omid increasingly focused his experience on the climate-housing challenge and the limitations of conventional construction. Geometry, origami and circular design began converging into the framework now being developed as CATs&DOG®.
From personal reinvention to formal structure
The second life gradually developed its own foundation through entrepreneurial programmes, research and industry engagement, and the ecosystems around CiC Rotterdam and the Space Business Innovation Center in Noordwijk.
In 2023, this journey was formalised through 4 OMID B.V. and 4 Earth 2 Mars Holding B.V. The companies created a structure for long-term stewardship and the focused development of CATs&DOG®.
“In my first life, I built with friends inside the society I knew. In my second, I had to begin largely alone as an expat. The experience from the first life remained valuable, but none of its position or recognition could simply be transferred.”
Beginning again was not about repeating the first journey in another country. It was about using the first life’s capability to pursue the innovation and impact that had remained unresolved.
WHERE THE TWO LIVES CONVERGE
Experience from the first life.
Purpose shaped through the second.
CATs&DOG® is where inherited building knowledge, professional construction, disaster rebuilding, entrepreneurship, geometry and international reinvention come together.
01 — Inherited foundation
Architecture and construction
A multigenerational relationship with building, followed by formal architectural education and an instinctive geometric design language.
03 — Entrepreneurial foundation
From ideas to execution
Learning how to form organisations, coordinate people, manage uncertainty and translate architectural intentions into built work.
02 — Practical foundation
Delivery under real conditions
Experience across design, construction, company leadership, technical adoption and rebuilding after natural disaster.
04 — Second-life foundation
Reinvention and impact
Beginning again as an expat transformed the objective from applying available innovations successfully to developing original system-level approaches.
THE CURRENT WORK
Developing adaptable construction-system logic for Earth and the Moon
Through 4 Earth 2 Mars, Omid is developing CATs&DOG®—a geometry-driven, modular, reconfigurable and serviceable construction-system framework.
The work has progressed through folded-paper studies, registered designs, digital configurations, physical assembly exploration and lunar infrastructure scenarios. It remains at an early stage and now requires focused mission definition, engineering requirements and comparative validation with qualified partners.
Founder and system originator
Omid defines the long-term direction, develops the geometric and system concepts, communicates the Moon-to-Earth strategy and builds relationships across construction, space, research and innovation.
Building the validation pathway
The immediate priority is to select one focused lunar infrastructure use case and work with mission, engineering, materials, manufacturing, robotics and testing partners to turn the framework into measurable evidence.
“The first life taught me that I could design, build and lead. The second asks whether those capabilities can help create something that matters beyond my own success.”
Help turn experience and geometry into measurable evidence.
Omid is interested in conversations with organisations and specialists who can contribute a focused use case, engineering capability, manufacturing process, robotic system, testing environment or development pathway.
Painted by Professor Mehdi Zahed on 8 January 1998.
While creating these two trees, he taught Omid a lesson that has remained with him throughout hia life: "look carefully at nature—and observe it as an architect."