Mohammad Karim Pirnia (, 16 September 1920 â 31 August 1997) was an Iranian architectural historian and architect.
Born in Yazd, Iran, he studied at what came to be University of Tehran's School of Fine Arts.
Pirnia, a student of traditional Iranian architecture, was one of the early architectural historians that developed a modern language to describe traditional Iranian architecture. His most prominent thoughts were later compiled as books and articles; among them âÂÂthe Principles of Iranian Architectureâ and âÂÂthe Stylistics of Iranian Architectureâ were more widely acclaimed. In the former, he proposes five principles and in the latter, he defines six historical styles (sabk) for Iranian architecture.