Profile
Nathan Friedman first joined Rice Architecture as a 2021–23 Wortham Fellow and is now a professor in the practice. He has taught previously at the Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Universidad Iberoamericana.
Friedman’s research focuses on the intersection of politics, identity, and the built environment. His work on the nineteenth-century constitution of the US-Mexico border and its material history was presented through the exhibition Attending Limits at the WUHO Gallery, Los Angeles, and the Bibliowicz Family Gallery, Cornell University, with support from the Graham Foundation. Friedman is a former editor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Thresholds, and his writing has been published in Art Journal, Log, MAS Context, Scapegoat, and Manifest.
Friedman is cofounder of the Mexico City-based design practice Departamento del Distrito, whose projects have been exhibited at the National Building Museum (Washington, DC), Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), arc en rêve (Bordeaux), Museo Numismático Nacional (Mexico City), and the Graham Foundation (Chicago). The practice was an official contributor to the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial and received the 2022 Architectural League of New York Prize for its diverse body of work that includes residential, public, and curatorial projects.
Before founding Departamento del Distrito with Francisco Quiñones in 2017, Friedman worked for Eisenman Architects, SMAQ Berlin, and OMA in Rotterdam, where he collaborated on numerous projects for both OMA and AMO including the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow.