During the 2009 AIA Convention I had the chance to attend a lecture by Nader Tehrani, after which I conducted this interview. He is one of the founders of the Boston based practice Office dA, with Monica Ponce de Leon.
Nader, who is also a professor at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning, has done an interesting research on the logic of materials, producing contemporary forms that are the result of new interpretations and building techniques, rather than just simple formal explorations.
I really like the “thinking” behind Office dA, which has allowed them to move from furniture up to the urban scale, resolving the specific issues of each scale with a similar logic.
I think that good examples of this are the Helios House for BP and the MacAllen building recently featured at AD.
From what I saw on Nader’s presentation, it looks like we are going to see more from Office dA in the near future.
Interview available in High Definition at Vimeo.