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)