Pratt Sessions: Nader Tehrani

Nader Tehrani, Founder and Principal of NADAAA and Professor and Dean Emeritus of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, joined GA/LA/UD Chair Andrew Holder for a Pratt Sessions event in the Higgins Hall Auditorium. As part of the Department’s ongoing series, the session focused on a close reading of a single canonical project from Tehrani’s practice: Villa Varoise.

For over two decades, Tehrani’s work with NADAAA has been recognized for its integration of advanced geometric exploration and computer-based fabrication within architecture’s longstanding interests in organization, tectonics, and material expression. In recent years, however, the practice has taken on cultural commissions in historic contexts—projects that deliberately temper the complex formal strategies often associated with NADAAA’s earlier work. This session examined how Villa Varoise reveals both continuity and evolution in Tehrani’s design thinking, while reflecting broader shifts within contemporary architecture.

Pratt Sessions is a platform for focused architectural discourse within the Department of Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design. Unlike conventional lectures, which often emphasize broad overviews, Pratt Sessions centers each event on a single work by a single architect or practice, creating a space for deep analysis and critical engagement.

BIO: Tehrani is the recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for “contributions to architecture as an art,” and has received nineteen Progressive Architecture Awards. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Design, and the recipient of the Design Visionary Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. His work with NADAAA ranges from urban infrastructure to installations and is included in the permanent collections of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Nasher Sculpture Center. His projects have been exhibited at MoMA, LA MOCA, and the Venice Biennale. Tehrani previously served as Head of Architecture at MIT (2010–14) and Dean of Architecture at The Cooper Union (2015–22).