Associate Dean Pari Riahi's "Architectures of Collectivity"

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Associate Dean Pari Riahi recently opened an exhibition, "Architectures of Collectivity," showcasing the open and public spaces surrounding social housing developments in the Parisian suburbs.

This presentation explores a current project analyzing housing developments and public spaces in the Parisian suburbs. It posits that the architectural vision behind these projects, conceived by diverse individuals, transcended traditional definitions of the field. Facing a housing crisis, architects designed these complexes as comprehensive environments, not just buildings, thus pushing the boundaries of architectural practice. 

Their work with mass housing necessitated considering sites, open spaces, and entire neighborhoods, leading to the integration of other disciplines and concepts into their architectural approach. A key focus of this study is understanding these projects within their surrounding context, both independently and in relation to the historic city. The research investigates the physical and conceptual relationship between architecture and its broader environment. These architects explored innovative ideas that shaped not only the buildings' physical form but also new modes of living, particularly collective living. This research critically examines the intentions and promises of these "architectures of collectivity," concentrating on a series of built projects primarily located in the Seine-Saint-Denis Department, within the northern Petite Couronne – the ring of three departments surrounding historic Paris.

Pari Riahi is a registered architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she has taught since 2016. She earned her PhD from McGill University in 2010. Her first book, Ars et Ingenium: The Embodiment of Imagination in Francesco di Giorgio Martini's Drawings (Routledge, 2015), explores the systematic integration of drawing into architectural design during the Renaissance. Her current book project, tentatively titled Architectures of Collectivity, examines the complex interplay of urban form, social housing, and their surrounding open and public spaces in the Parisian suburbs. She is the founder, co-chair, and co-editor of a series of symposia and edited volumes on contemporary architecture: Exactitude (2020), Multiplicity (2022), and Quickness (2024). Exactitude: On Precision and Play in Contemporary Architecture was published in 2022, and Multiplicity: On Constraint and Agency in Contemporary Architecture is forthcoming in 2024 (both from UMass Press). Dr. Riahi's work has appeared in the Journal of Architecture, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of Interior Architecture and Adaptive Reuse, and Architecture Boston. She has also exhibited her work in Rising Measures (2019, Amherst and New York) and In the Wake (2022, Amherst). She serves on the advisory committee for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and is an international editor for the Journal of Architecture.

Dean Riahi's exhibition, "Architectures of Collectivity," is open to the public at the John Olver Design Building Gallery until mid-March. All are welcome.