In 2005, Payam returned to the Royal College of Art to co-found a studio called The Globalized Idiot in the Architecture and Design Department. The course examined certain seemingly “wrong” approaches to architecture– repetition, misinterpretation, stubbornness, autism, amongst others– via polemical precedents in literature, fashion, cinema and urbanism. His speaking engagements have since included lectures and symposia at various universities, cultural institutions and festivals, including the ICA, London, the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Cycles and Seasons, Moscow, and the London Architecture Biennale.