Architect Dr Yael Reisner combines architectural practice with research, and curatorial work.
Portrait of Yael Reisner
A native of Tel Aviv who lives in London since 1990. Reisner has a BSc (Hons) in Biology but switched to architecture, finishing her studies at the Architectural Association, London, and gaining her PhD from RMIT, Melbourne.
In January 2021 Reisner was elected to the Architectural Association’s Council, the AA governing body.
In May 2018, Reisner won the competition to curate the 5th Tallinn Architecture Biennale, TAB 2019. The Biennale included an exhibition, a symposium, a vision competition, and a catalogue, focused on exploring the theme Beauty Matters: the Resurgence of Beauty, based on Reisner’s thesis (2009), book, (2010), and her further research since 2014.
Simultaneously with the TAB 2019 activity including the co-editing its catalogue, Reisner was guest editor of a complementary issue of Architectural Design, AD Sep. 2019, published by Wiley, UK, entitled: Beauty Matters, Human Judgement and the pursuit of New Beauties. (05, vol. 89.) That issue shares this interdisciplinary interest in beauty and its symbiotic relationship with architecture. (Including, articles on Beauty by neuroscientist, philosopher, mathematician)
Reisner’s book, written with Fleur Watson, Architecture and Beauty, Conversations with Architects about A Troubled Relationship, was published by Wiley UK in 2010, and the first dissemination of her thesis. It was the catalyst for six symposia events at: the Royal Academy, London; Venice Biennale; Lund University, Sweden; SCI Arc, Los Angeles; Pratt Institute, NYC; and Tel Aviv University. In 2014, the book was translated to Chinese.
In 2014, her original thesis research widened in scope, exploring disciplines including neuroscience, and mathematics, to understand beauty’s relevance to human life and knowledge. Reisner’s research continues, seeking to explain the role of visual thinking and intuitive insight, in her quest to relate the enigma of beauty in architecture to human brain and the sense of vision.
Yael Reisner Studio is committed to research-led projects, increasingly focused on human wellbeing and the built environment, where the experience of beauty was the aspiration. Her public works include: Take My Hand, Rights and Weddings, an installation that explored human rights and wellbeing in Placa de La Merce, Barcelona (2014) produced by the Enric Miralles Foundation.
Exhibitions include: In The Mirror, a large scale interior installation that explored the spatial experience of a pop music video. Designed together with Barnaby Gunning for ‘Tomorrow’s Party’, an exhibition of digital art, analogue artifices augmented digitally, and curated by Shang Shang, Beijing (2015). In 2011, Reisner was invited by the late Will Alsop to curate an exhibition at the TESTBED1 Gallery, Battersea, London. Turning the Tables explored the parameters of this everyday item, exhibiting 14 new tables.
Reisner has taught internationally since 2005 (Sci Arc, LA; Lund University; Architectural Association, London; ESA, Paris; Confluence, Lyon). Previously she taught at UCL The Bartlett for nine years, as M.Arch course coordinator and group tutor as well as Diploma Unit 11 Unit Master. In 2017 Reisner was a guest professor at Peter Behrens School of the Arts / Architecture and Design, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, and since 2017 sometimes acted as a PhD external examiner at RMIT.
Architect Dr Yael Reisner combines architectural practice with research, and curatorial work.
Portrait of Yael Reisner
A native of Tel Aviv who lives in London since 1990. Reisner has a BSc (Hons) in Biology but switched to architecture, finishing her studies at the Architectural Association, London, and gaining her PhD from RMIT, Melbourne.
In January 2021 Reisner was elected to the Architectural Association’s Council, the AA governing body.
In May 2018, Reisner won the competition to curate the 5th Tallinn Architecture Biennale, TAB 2019. The Biennale included an exhibition, a symposium, a vision competition, and a catalogue, focused on exploring the theme Beauty Matters: the Resurgence of Beauty, based on Reisner’s thesis (2009), book, (2010), and her further research since 2014.
Simultaneously with the TAB 2019 activity including the co-editing its catalogue, Reisner was guest editor of a complementary issue of Architectural Design, AD Sep. 2019, published by Wiley, UK, entitled: Beauty Matters, Human Judgement and the pursuit of New Beauties. (05, vol. 89.) That issue shares this interdisciplinary interest in beauty and its symbiotic relationship with architecture. (Including, articles on Beauty by neuroscientist, philosopher, mathematician)
Reisner’s book, written with Fleur Watson, Architecture and Beauty, Conversations with Architects about A Troubled Relationship, was published by Wiley UK in 2010, and the first dissemination of her thesis. It was the catalyst for six symposia events at: the Royal Academy, London; Venice Biennale; Lund University, Sweden; SCI Arc, Los Angeles; Pratt Institute, NYC; and Tel Aviv University. In 2014, the book was translated to Chinese.
In 2014, her original thesis research widened in scope, exploring disciplines including neuroscience, and mathematics, to understand beauty’s relevance to human life and knowledge. Reisner’s research continues, seeking to explain the role of visual thinking and intuitive insight, in her quest to relate the enigma of beauty in architecture to human brain and the sense of vision.
Yael Reisner Studio is committed to research-led projects, increasingly focused on human wellbeing and the built environment, where the experience of beauty was the aspiration. Her public works include: Take My Hand, Rights and Weddings, an installation that explored human rights and wellbeing in Placa de La Merce, Barcelona (2014) produced by the Enric Miralles Foundation.
Exhibitions include: In The Mirror, a large scale interior installation that explored the spatial experience of a pop music video. Designed together with Barnaby Gunning for ‘Tomorrow’s Party’, an exhibition of digital art, analogue artifices augmented digitally, and curated by Shang Shang, Beijing (2015). In 2011, Reisner was invited by the late Will Alsop to curate an exhibition at the TESTBED1 Gallery, Battersea, London. Turning the Tables explored the parameters of this everyday item, exhibiting 14 new tables.
Reisner has taught internationally since 2005 (Sci Arc, LA; Lund University; Architectural Association, London; ESA, Paris; Confluence, Lyon). Previously she taught at UCL The Bartlett for nine years, as M.Arch course coordinator and group tutor as well as Diploma Unit 11 Unit Master. In 2017 Reisner was a guest professor at Peter Behrens School of the Arts / Architecture and Design, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, and since 2017 sometimes acted as a PhD external examiner at RMIT.