Todd Reisz

Todd Reisz is an architect and writer living in Amsterdam. His work examines the global practice of architecture, specifically how the architect circulates technologies and cultural narratives. His recent book Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai (Stanford University Press, 2020) explores architecture’s packaging to sell Dubai on a global stage. He has also co-edited Building Sharjah (Birkhäuser, 2021), an archival investigation of the city’s vanishing twentieth-century landscape. His most recent book is Off Centre / On Stage: Dubai Scenes from the 1970s (Khatt Books, 2021). Reisz has served as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor in Design at Yale School of Architecture and as a guest faculty member at Harvard Graduate School of Design. From 2012 to 2017, he was the Rose Visiting Assistant Professor in Urban Studies at Yale. At OMA, Reisz led the office’s first entry at the Venice Architecture Biennial (2006) and edited Al Manakh (2007) and Al Manakh 2: Gulf Continued (2010), two definitive explorations of Arab cities in the Gulf region. His work has been featured in several Venice Architecture Biennials, the Istanbul Design Biennial, Sharjah Biennial 13, and publications such as the Guardian, Perspecta, Log, Jadaliyya, Architectural Design, and Artforum.