Feb. 9, Mehrdad Hadighi, "Material and Labor"

black and white photo showing woven concrete facade of corporate headquarters.

Hadighi designed a woven concrete facade for the Shantou, China headquarters for Lafayette 148, a New York-based clothing designer and producer. Image courtesy Studio for Architecture.

Influenced by studies in painting, studio arts and contemporary literature, architect Merhrdad Hadighi has produced a wide range of work with a changing cast of collaborators. Key built projects include Tall Acres, a dialog between an existing vinyl clad saltbox and a new addition comprising a 75-ton tube of black polished concrete; Big Orbits, a gallery and landscape installation featuring negative and positive spaces formed by pallets; and Lafayette 148, headquarters for a clothing designer and producer graced by a woven concrete facade.

Currently an associate professor and chair of the School of Architecture and Planning at the State University of New York, Buffalo, Hadighi was selected as one of “25 most intriguing, innovative and intrepid architects, from all over the world” by Wallpaper* magazine in 2004. His firm, Studio for Architecture, was named one of 10 "Design Vanguard" firms that “have reshaped the globe” by Architectural Record in 2003. The Architectural League of New York selected Hadighi as one of six Notable Young Architects in 1996.

Hadighi completed his post-professional studies in architecture at Cornell University and holds degrees in architecture and studio art from the University of Maryland. He practiced with Bernard Tschumi Architects and J. Victor Bagnardi Architects and established his own firm in 1987. He has produced site specific installations for galleries in Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City and Washington, D.C., and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Council on the Creative and Performing Arts. He has taught at Columbia, Cornell and Miami universities, and also has served as a guest professor and critic at the University of Arizona, the University of Texas/Arlington and in the countries of Korea and Liechtenstein. His work has been widely exhibited and published.