studio ilinx, is an architecture, design and art studio based in Rotterdam. It was founded by the architect, artist, researcher and tutor Nasim Razavian in 2015. It works on multiple research and practice-based projects and collaborations with other artists, scientists and designers. Its projects operate on the intersection of architecture, design, art, theory and pedagogy.
ilinx: ilinx is one of the forms of play introduced by the philosopher Roger Caillois. Ilinx introduces a “temporary disruption of perception, as with vertigo, dizziness, or disorienting changes in direction of movement”. It can be compared to the experience of sitting in a roller coaster or the action of the tightrope walker. It deals with the borders & limits of things. studio ilinx has a specific focus and works with certain topics of interests that all are related to each other. It experiments with these topics through multiple media and scales:
Psychosomatics of Space: studio ilinx works on the interrelations between the psyche, the body, and space
Spatial Performativity: studio ilinx understands space as a performative phenomenon and it celebrates spatial dynamism and experimenting with relationships between time and space.
Liminality: studio ilinx works with the question of borders and limits. It creates spaces that operate on the limits and play with those limits. It understands architecture as the mediator always constructing relations between different bodies, spaces, conditions, and discourses. Since 2012, Nasim is part of the Borders and Territories research group.
Play-grounds: the most liminal space is probably the play-ground. Play is the reoccurring theme in the projects of studio ilinx. A play-ground is not necessarily the conventional playgrounds that we see in the cities, but spaces and times that are activating play and are activated by complex operations of play; in that sense a play-ground can also be a drawing, a film or a book. Since 2010, Nasim Razavian has created a series of projects called "play-grounds” (with a hyphen) that are a series of works in which the notion of play is thought and rethought differently each time. Play of the Architectural Construct is the topic of Nasim’s doctorate research at TU Delft at the Borders & Territories research group.
Slow spaces: One of the main focal points of studio ilinx is to find ways of living and staying mentally healthy in the rapidly changing world. Humans have exhausted the earth, themselves and the other beings. studio ilinx practices slowness through spatial design. How can spaces slow us down?
Affects: space is an extremely powerful medium to work with. It affects the psyche and the body. It directly affects life (of humans and non-humans). Studio ilinx understands affects as an integral aspect of spaces.
Materiality: studio ilinx has a playful approach with materiality and it experiments with "other" methods of making space.
More-than-human: studio ilinx intends to think life in a more inclusive way considering both humans and non-humans.
Nasim Razavian
Nasim Razavian is the founder of studio ilinx. She is an architect, PhD researcher, and tutor and is active both in academia and practice.
Since 2010, Nasim has been the project leader of several built projects. In 2015 she has founded studio ilinx in Rotterdam and she has collaborated with others on multiple design and research projects. Her works have been exhibited at different international venues and biennales and published by publishers such as Domus, de Architect, Architectural Digest, Designboom, Dezeen, Urbanistica Informazioni and Modi Operandi amongst others. Nasim has studied Bachelor of Architecture at Tehran University of Art (summa cum laude) and Master of Architecture at TU Delft (Honorable Mention and Archiprix nomination). In 2022, Nasim has been nominated for the Dutch architecture award ARC22 Young Talent Award.
Nasim is also a PhD candidate at the Borders & Territories research group at the Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft where she is conducting her research with the topic Play of Architectural Construct. Her doctorate thesis is situated at the intersection of architectural theory, art philosophy, play studies and architectural design.
Since 2016, she has been teaching at different universities and academies in the Netherlands such as TU Delft (MSc), Fontys (MA) Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst in Rotterdam (MSc) and Willem de Kooning Academie (WDKA) in Rotterdam (BA). Since 2021, she is teaching at Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in Den Haag (MA) in INSIDE program. There she supervises graduation projects and runs Studio Space.
2022-ongoing: Studio Space: House of phobia
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)
Master Interior Architecture (INSIDE) programme
2021-ongoing: Graduation Supervision
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)
Master Interior Architecture (INSIDE) programme
2022: Studio Crossing Borders
Design Studio and Seminar
Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst
Master of Architecture
Teachers: Negar Sanaan Bensi, Carolien Schippers, Communication: Nasim Razavian
2021-ongoing: Studio Dutch Mountains
Design Studio and Seminar
Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst
Master of Architecture
Design Teachers: Nasim Razavian, David Rademacher
Research: Hugo Corbett
Communication: Mauricio Freyre
2020: Studio Crossing Borders
Design Studio and Seminar
Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst
Master of Architecture
Teachers: Negar Sanaan Bensi, Carolien Schippers, Communication: Nasim Razavian
2020: Experiments in Drawing Theory
Elective course (Design and theory)
Delft University of Technology
Master of Architecture
Teachers: Nasim Razavian, Stefano Milani, and Marc Schoonderbeek
2018: Studio Constraints
Design Studio
Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts
Master of Architecture (MA+ U)
Teachers: Nasim Razavian and David Rademacher (Rademacher de Vries)
2018: Studio Constraints
Theory Seminars
Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts
Master of Architecture (MA+ U)
Teachers: Nasim Razavian and David Rademacher (Rademacher de Vries)
2017: Means of Architectural Design
Online lecture series on architectural design
Delft University of Technology
Lecturer: Michiel Riedijk (Neutelings Riedijk Architects)
Course developers: Nasim Razavian, Alper Alkan, Gökçe Önal
2016: Collage, Montage and Assemblage in Architecture
Design Studio
Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts
Master of Architecture (MA+ U)
Teachers: Nasim Razavian and Marc Schoonderbeek
2016: Collage, Montage and Assemblage in Architecture
Theory Seminars
Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts
Master of Architecture (MA+ U)
Teachers: Nasim Razavian and Marc Schoonderbeek
2022: Lecure and feedback sessions at Willem de Kooning Academie, Autonomous practice (public and Private)
2022: External Examiner at Piet Zwart Institute, Interior Architecture: Research + Design (MIARD) programme
Evaluation of the MIARD Graduation Studio
2021: External Examiner at Piet Zwart Institute, Interior Architecture: Research + Design (MIARD) programme
Evaluation of the MIARD Graduation Studio
2020: Lecture at Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst
Lecture Title: The Architectural Drawing & its Potentials
2019: External Jury at the Architecture Faculty of Delft University of Technology
Final presentations and exhibition of the course Architectural Composition and Media
2018: Lecture at Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts (MA+ U)
Lecture Title: The poetics of constraints
2018: Lecture at Architecture Faculty of Delft University of Technology organized by Public Building Graduation Studio
Lecture Title: Architecture and Assemblage Thinking
2017: External Jury at Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts
2016: Lecture at Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts (MA+ U)
Lecture Title: Assemblage, Montage, and Collage
2023 She is Cool Pop-up, Leliegracht 14 Amsterdam, Exhibited Project Igol House
2022 By Way of Detour, Rotterdam Art Week, Studios Borgerstraat, Performance & Exhibition of Collective Project KA-BOEM!
2022 By Way of Detour, Rotterdam Art Week, Studios Borgerstraat, Exhibited Drawings: The Dead Drawings of Theatrical Istanbul
2021 Objet # 4, Niavaran Cultural Centre, Tehran, Prototype Design of furniture: Stepwell Basin
2020 Experiments in Drawing Theory, TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture, Co-Curator
2020: OTher Ways of Watching Together (By Neverland Cinema and MAMA), video art screening, MAMA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2018: DISEGNO 2018, Mastery and uncertainty: the drawings of architecture, international colloquium and exhibition: Exhibited 5 drawings titled The Dead Drawings of Theatrical Istanbul, LOCI Faculty, University of Louvain, Tournai, Belgium
2018: The drawings of the Doctoral thesis titled An Inhabitable Infrastructure: Rethinking the architecture of the bazaar, Doctoral Dissertation by Negar Sanaan Bensi defended on 11-12-2018, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
2017: BYOB at BARPLUS, video art screening, Barplus, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2015: Third Biennale of Public Space, exhibited the project Wall of Happiness, Rome, Italy
2015: Article Public Space and Happiness in the Urban Environment
Published in Urbanistica Informazioni special issue,
(Edited by: Sepe,M., ISSN n. 0392-5005, May and June 2015, Published by INU, Rome)
Pages: 115-119
2015: Project Wall of Happiness
Published in Urbanistica Informazioni special issue
(Edited by: Sepe,M., ISSN n. 0392-5005, May and June 2015, Published by INU, Rome)
Pages: 164-165