Pari Riahi
Pari Riahi is an Associate Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Department of Architecture. Prior to joining UMass, she taught in multiple capacities at RISD, MIT and SUNY Buffalo. Pari teaches design studios and gives theory courses and seminars centered on architectural drawings and representation and the contemporary city. Pari completed her PhD at McGill University in 2010.
Her first book, Ars et Ingenium: The Embodiment of Imagination in Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Drawings (Routledge, 2015) concerns the systematic inclusion of drawing as a component of architectural design and investigates the treatises of Francesco as one of its strong advocates. Her upcoming book, Disjointed Continuity: Architectural Drawing in the Post-Digital Era tracks the propagation of digital media and its effect on architectural theory and practice. Having investigated the Renaissance as a clear moment of identifying drawing as a primary vehicle for architectural thought and action, the work looks into the complexities, potentials and promises of the digital tools and techniques in redefining drawing. Questions related to contemporary cities in crisis and possible intervention and reuse strategies form a secondary track in Pari’s research. She has been actively engaged with this research track through teaching elective studios and doing hypothetical projects, which have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Pari is a registered architect and pursues projects that are at the confluence of landscape, urban, and architectural design. Prior to starting her practice in 2011, Pari worked for the offices of Machado and Silvetti and Martha Schwartz Inc. Her office focuses on small-scale built projects as well as large-scale hypothetical interventions within the confines of cities.
Publications
BOOKS
Architectural Drawing in the Post-Digital Era: Disjointed Continuity, London and New York: Routledge, Forthcoming, Fall 2021
Ars et Ingenium: Embodied Imagination in Francesco di Giorgio’s Drawings, Abingdon: Routledge, January 2015
EDITED VOLUMES
Exactitude, A Collection of Essays, Edited by Pari Riahi, Laure Katsaros and Michael Davis, Amherst: UMass Press, Forthcoming, Spring 2022
ARTICLES
Holding Ground, int|AR: Resilience and Adaptability in Building Interventions and Adaptive Reuse, IN BETWEEN [narrative environments] Volume 10, November 2019, pp. 14-21
Expanding the Boundaries of Architectural Representation, Invited introductory chapter in “The Medium of Architecture and the Dilemmas of Representation”, 20th Anniversary Anthology, Journal of Architecture, July 2017, pp 815-825
Rising Measures: Drawing over the Cités HLM in Greater Paris, Journal of Architectural Education, 69.1, Spring 2015, pp 98-107
Fostering Resilience in a Vulnerable Terrain, int|AR: Resilience and Adaptability in Building Interventions and Adaptive Reuse, Volume 5, 2014, pp 40-45
REVIEW ARTICLES
X-Ray Architecture by Beatriz Colomina, Book Review, Journal of Architecture, 25 (4), 2020, pp 507-511
Enthralled by Natural Beauty, Book Review of “The Shape of the World”, Architecture Boston, Fab (volume 20:n4), 2017
Tracing the Ephemeral, Exhibition Review of the “Festive City”, Architecture Boston: School (Volume16:n1), 2013
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Architecture and Democracy 1965-1989: Urban Renewal, Populism and the Welfare State Conference, Delft and Rotterdam: Jaap Bakema Study Centre, TU Delft and Het Nieuwe Instituut, May 2020
How to Teach History & Theory of Architecture Differently?, The 2019 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Fall Meeting Proceedings, ACSA, March 2020
Delayed Processes, ACSA 107’s Conference Proceedings, ACSA Press, March 2019
The Improvised Versus the Planned: In Search of Public Space in Parisian Suburbs, ACSA 105’s Conference Proceedings, ACSA Press, March 2017, pp 456-463
