This past Wednesday we were graced by presentations from the CEO of indy-publishing supersite Blurb , Eileen Gittins, and Tehran native and architecture professor, Pouya Khazaeli. With a 90-minute one-two punch Eileen defended hope for the physical book as we know it, and Pouya led a tour of a rapidly transforming, and highly misunderstood Persian capital.

In Eileen's recent experience, there's much promise for the future of books, although perhaps through an evolved economic structure. The proof: 20,000 new titles were generated on Blurb LAST MONDAY ALONE. The popularity may be from the fact that this democratization has freed published content from an antiquated system.

As an example, Eileen told us of a young graphic designer from Cropwell, Alabama, whose Blurb-published work and personal story impressed the site so much they headed South for a video feature:

Pouya Khazaeli, briefly introduced by Ken Smith a couple weeks ago, took this opportunity during his last week in San Francisco to show us some facets of the place to which he is returning: Tehran. Pouya, an Iranian architecture professor and practitioner, took us on a tour of this complex city – from its majestic architecture to turbulent street life. Tehran is in transition, and the have-not's are finding a voice, as you can see in this music video that Pouya shared with us:

The emergence of Tehran's rich cultural environment is calling ever more attention to the fact that Tehran could use an Architecture for Humanity Chapter, and Pouya is heading back to Iran to launch one.