Nader Tehrani is Principal and Founder of NADAAA, a practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry.
He is also Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., USA. Working on interdisciplinary platforms, his research has been focused on the transformation of the building industry, innovative material applications, and the development of new means and methods of construction – as exemplified in his work with digital fabrication.
Nader Tehrani received a Bachelor of Fine Art and Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design (1985/6), and his Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1991).
He has held previous teaching positions at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Northeastern University, Georgia Institute of Technology where he served as the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design, and Otis College of Art and Design where he served as a Donghia Designer-in-Residence. His research and installations have been exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.
He has authored several articles including “Aggregation” and “Difficult Synthesis” in Material Design: Informing Architecture through Materiality by Thomas Schropfer and “Versioning: Connubial Reciprocities of Surface and Space” in Architectural Design. His work has been internationally reviewed and published in periodicals such as Architect, Architectural Record, Icon, Wallpaper, Monitor, The Plan, Abitare, Mark, Frame, I.D., Contract, Archiworld, and the New York Times, among others.
He has received numerous international awards including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture (2007), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture (2002), and thirteen Progressive Architecture Awards. He has also been honored with the United States Artists Fellowship in Architecture and Design (2007) and the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Award (1997).
Previously he was a Principal and Founder of Office dA (1986-2011), where he designed award-winning projects such as Tongxian Art Gatehouse in Beijing, Fleet Library at RISD, the LEED-certified Helios House in Los Angeles, the Multi-faith Spiritual Center at Northeastern University, Banq restaurant and the LEED-Gold certified Macallen Building in Boston. Examining spaces of pedagogy, he recently completed the renovation of the Hinman Building at Georgia Institute of Technology, and is currently redesigning schools of architecture at the University of Melbourne and the University of Toronto.
He has also served as a juror for many design competitions and awards, including the Canadian Governor General’s Medals in Architecture, and the New Multi-functional Administration Cities in the Republic of Korea competition, for which he was jury chair. He was a member of the Holcim Awards jury for region North America in 2011.
last updated 18-Oct-2011