Nasrin Seraji
Distinguished professor
email：nseraji@kean.edu
Education
1983 Architectural Association School of Architecture, London
AA Diploma, RIBA Part II; RIBA Part I (1981)
1974 Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
Studies in Medicine
Biography
Nasrin Seraji, recently appointed Distinguished Professor of Architectural Design and Research at the Michael Graves School of Public Architecture, in WKU has had a distinguished career in both academia and architectural practice.
She has taught in leading schools such as the Architectural Association, Princeton, Columbia; and served as Professor and Chair of Architecture at Cornell University, Director of ENSA Paris-Malaquais for ten years, and Professor and Head of Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. She is currently a Full Professor of Architectural Design at University College Dublin.
Professor Seraji’s architecture studio has produced many notable projects, from the Temporary American Centre in the French capital which started her career to Big-heavy-beautiful, a complex mixed-use building for the Paris transport authority that was inaugurated in 2017. The student housing project in Paris and the School of Architecture in Lille earned the studio two nominations for the Mies van der Rohe Prize, and the Romeo and Juliette apartments was granted a special mention of the Équerre d’Argent.
Professor Seraji AA DIPL FRIBA has received a number of honours, including the Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, and was elected a fellow at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Research Interests
I am interested in collective housing as the main ingredient of the city. I have explored this relationship historically in my book, Housing, substance of our cities, a European Chronicle 1900-2007.
I am equally interested in other questions concerning the city, its architecture, landscape, geography, public spaces, its economy and governance. Most recently, I have been working on what I call ‘Integrative Architecture’; an architecture that is simultaneously a piece of infrastructure, a landscape, a building, and public space – in short, a piece of the city that acts as a negotiating element amongst all the spaces around it, in it, over it, and under it. I am also working on my book with the provisional title IT IS ALL ABOUT IMAGINATION: architectural education, is not a vocation but neither is the practice of architecture!!!
Honours and Distinctions
2017 Elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA)
Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (OAL), awarded by the French Minister of Culture
2016 Officier de l’Ordre Nationale du Mérite (ONM), awarded by the President of the French Republic
2011 Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, awarded by the President of the French Republic
2008 Chevalier de l’Ordre Nationale du Mérite (ONM), awarded by the President of the French Republic Médaille d’argent, for excellence in education, awarded by the French Academy of Architecture
2006 Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (OAL), awarded by the French Minister of Culture
2005 Outstanding Educator, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Academic Appointments
2021– University College Dublin, Ireland
Professor of Architectural Design
2018–2021 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Professor, Department of Architecture
2016–2018 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Professor and Head, Department of Architecture
2014–2015 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Centennial Visiting Professor
2006–2016 École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais, Paris
Dean / Director
2006–2012 Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna
Professor and Head of the Institute for Art and Architecture
2001–2005 Cornell University, College of Architecture Art and Planning, Ithaca, New York
Tenured Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture
1996–2001 Princeton University, School of Architecture, Princeton, New Jersey
Visiting Professor
1996–2001 Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna
Professor and Director of the Institute for Art and Architecture
1999 Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Associate Professor, New York-Paris Program
1993–1998 Architectural Association School of Architecture, London
Diploma Unit Master
1995 École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris
Visiting Professor
1994 Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, New York
Associate Professor
1994 Tulane University, School of Architecture, New Orleans, Louisiana
Visiting Professor
1993 Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, New York
Visiting Professor, Paris/New York Program
1988–1991 University of Toronto, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
Visiting Professor, Paris Study Abroad Program
Publications (author or contributor)
2021 It is All About Imagination: Dangerous Liaisons Between Architectural Education and Practice Actar Publishers, forthcoming (author)
2019 From Crisis to Crisis: Debates On Why Architecture Criticism Matters Today Actar Publishers (editor)
“On design education”, Domus (Italy), n°1038 September (author)
Big Heavy Beautiful, HKU RAE 2020 design folio (author)
“Naturestation-Parc” – Rive des Gaves, HKU RAE 2020 design folio (author)
Romeo Juliette, HKU RAE 2020 design folio (author)
Whatever Happened to the Garden City?, HKU RAE 2020 design folio (author)
2015 Big! Bad? Modern: Four Mega Buildings in Vienna Park Books, Zurich (contributor)
Parc Naturel de La Gare, Rive des Gaves, Paris (author)
2013 Trois Architectes: Une Parcelle de Paris / Three Architects: A Parisian Plot Ante Prima/AAM Éditions (contributor)
2011 “Lettre de Téhéran”, Criticat (France), n°7 March (author)
2008 “Faire ville avec les lotissements”, Le Moniteur, Paris (contributor)
2007 Housing: Substance of Our Cities, European Chronicle, 1900–2007. Exhibition catalogue Pavillon de l’Arsenal/Picard, Paris (editor)
2002 Nasrine Seraji: Architecture as Territory. Edizioni Libria, Melfi, Italy (contributor)
“Programmer La Ville,” L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (France) (Issue on Cities) (contributor)
2001 ArchiLab: Radical Experiments in Global Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London (contributor)
2000 Vacant City. NAi Publishers, Rotterdam (contributor)
1999 Young French Architects, Birkhäuser, Basel/Berlin (contributor)
1997 “On Atelier Seraji,” Joshua Architecture (Italy) (contributor)
1996 The Architect: Reconstructing Her Practice. The MIT Press (contributor)