Nasrin Seraji

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BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1957 in Tehran, Nasrin Seraji was educated at the Architectural Association in London and founded Atelier Seraji in Paris in 1990.Important buildings realized by the firm include the School of Architecture in Lille, France (2006) and the Linzerstrasse Apartments in Vienna, Austria (2003). More recently, the firm has been concentrating its attention on urban–scale planning with projects in Penang (Malaysia), Chongli (China), and many cities throughout France.

Seraji has taught extensively in England at the AA London (1993–1998) and in the United States at Columbia Univ. (1994), Princeton Univ. (1996–2001), and Cornell University (2001–2005) where she was the Chair of the department of architecture.
Currently, she directs the Institute for Art and Architecture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna (since 2006), and is dean at the École d’architecture de Paris–Malaquais (since 2006). In 2006, she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and in 2008 the Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.

Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associés is an architecture and urbanism studio based in Paris operating at an international scale. It was founded as Atelier Seraji in by Nasrine Seraji. Starting with the Temporary American Center in Paris, the firm has realized a number of buildings, notably several collective housing projects in Paris and Vienna, a school of architecture in Lille, and a museum in l›Aisne, France.
Nasrine Seraji has pursued a path constantly enriched by a simultaneous engagement in architectural practice, teaching, and research. As a result, the firm›s conception of architecture and urbanism is consistent with the image of an atelier: a laboratory for both practice and research. Each project is studied and conceived in strict relationship with a critical analysis of all its conditions: its site and program, as well as its socio–economic context and cultural specificities. Projects are the result of a patient reflection, guided by principles and a firmly established ethic, in an open dialogue both within the studio and with clients and collaborators.
In 2006, after sixteen years of sole proprietorship, Roland Oberhofer and Nicolas Février joined Nasrine Seraji in the practice, signaling an expansion and restructuring of the Atelier. Today, Atelier Seraji Architectes & Associés (ASAA) comprises 15 architects contributing to the debate and construction of the architectural and urban environments. The firm regularly collaborates with special consultants in the fields of landscape design, engineering, graphic design, programming, economics, and management, which allows it to conceive of design proposals tailored to specific conditions.

«The projects produced by Atelier Seraji, however, are by no means dry theoretical declarations; in fact, it is rather their formal sophistication which stands out as their most striking characteristic. These complex compositions are sculpted by a methodical process of refinement, a spatial modeling which makes lines swirl, surfaces tilt, and masses float. Plans and volumes attain their equilibrium, or disequilibrium, at the always temporary end of this game with voids, surfaces, functions, uses, and even representation. Often this process finds its fullest expression in the ground plan, the embodiment of the moment where the physical intervention of the architect meets its territory, modifies it, and harnesses the
movements within. The buildings of Nasrine Seraji are machines for perceiving that seek to rethink seemingly familiar programmes, to intensify their impact by giving form to their scenographic potentials.» – by Françoise Fromonot