Organized by the Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS), the Design Matters lecture series brings to Calgary a range of important speakers who explore design in our contemporary culture. This month the series welcomes Nader Tehrani.
Tehrani is a professor and the head of the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the principal and co-founder of NADAAA — a design practice dedicated to the advancement of design innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an intensive dialogue with the construction industry.
Building and architecture share obvious alliances, but encounter significant differences between philosophies that bias innovation versus those that maintain the status quo. It’s these differences that extend existing manufacturing practices, models of assembly, and labor relations.
NADAAA was established in 2011 by Tehrani and his partners Dan Gallagher and Katherine Faulkner, founded on an overarching commitment to research, the cultivation of new means and methods of fabrication, and the transformation of the building industry.
“Nader’s work is remarkable in that it translates across a number of orders: speculative, academic and actualized,” states Josh Taron, assistant professor of architecture at EVDS. “His design sensibilities are traceable throughout a number of contemporary trajectories, but perhaps most compelling is the degree of influence he has over the next generation of thinkers and designers who experience his work or have the privilege in engaging the problems he is setting forth.”
NADAAA represents a new phase for Tehrani. The firm serves as a platform for design investigation at a larger scale, with a greater geographic reach. They are currently working on a number of public, institutional, and private commissions, both national and internationally.
“Nader finds ways to develop incredibly potent architectural effects using elegantly minimal strategies,” notes Taron. “This is especially relevant in a city like Calgary that adheres to a kind of responsible austerity while longing for expressive ways to transform the urban environment without compromising its social ethics.”
Join EVDS for Design Matters with Nader Tehrani as he explores progressive methods for fabrication and how the applications of such methods are influencing the building industry.
The lecture takes place Wednesday, March 6 from 6-8 p.m. at the downtown campus (906 8th Ave. S.W.). Admission is free for students and $5 for non-students.
For more information, click here.
Story by Jessica Wallace