Biography

Todd Reisz is an architect and writer whose work often focuses on cities of the Arabian Peninsula, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. For six years, he was a leading designer and researcher at OMA in Rotterdam.

In 2020, his decade-long project on Dubai’s early modernisation and the architectural career of John Harris, Along Sound Lines: Making Dubai 1955-1979, will be published by Stanford University Press, and he is co-editing a book with Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi about Sharjah’s modern architecture and the cultural landscape in which it is rooted. He was also editor of the Al Manakh series (2007, 2010), two essential guides to urban development in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, and he was both editor and contributing writer for the Beirut-based Portal 9.

His work has been featured in several Venice Architecture Biennales, Sharjah Biennial 13 and publications such as The Guardian, Perspecta, Log, Jadaliyya, Journal of Urban History, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Architectural Design, Artforum, Volume and ARCH+. He has been an invited speaker at Tate Modern, Harvard University, Yale University, TU Delft, Columbia University, MIT, Architectural Association, International New Town Institute, Inspiring Cities (Amsterdam) and ETH Zurich.

Reisz served for five years as the Daniel Rose Visiting Assistant Professor in Urban Studies at the Yale School of Architecture, where he is currently the Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor of Architectural Design. He has also taught in the Aga Khan Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He holds degrees in architecture and English literature from Yale University.

Born in 1973 in Kentucky, he currently lives and works between Amsterdam and New Haven, US.

SAF participation:
March Meeting 2019
Sharjah Biennial 13 (with Hind Mezaina)

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