Nader Khalili was an Iranian-born American architect, author, and educator.
14 Facts About Nader Khalili
1.
2.
Nader Khalili is best known for his inventive structures that incorporated a range of atypical building materials to provide shelter in the developing world and emergency contexts.
3.
Nader Khalili's work was heavily influenced by the traditional arid house designs of Iran.
4.
Nader Khalili was born in Tehran, Pahlavi Iran into a large family, he had 8 siblings.
5.
Nader Khalili attended the University of Tehran where he studied Persian literature and poetry; followed by the study of engineering and architecture at Istanbul Technical University.
6.
In 1975, Khalili was working in Iran at a conventional western-style architecture firm on projects for the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, when he realized his profits were coming at the expense of traditional Iranian architecture.
7.
Nader Khalili sold his stake in the firm, bought a motorcycle, and spent the next five years living in remote parts of the Iran desert.
8.
Nader Khalili's goal was to preserve the historical Iranian architecture and help house the poor.
9.
Nader Khalili's designs are heavily inspired by traditional arid house designs in his homeland Iran.
10.
Nader Khalili was known for his innovation into the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire System known as Ceramic Houses and the Earthbag Construction technique called Superadobe.
11.
Nader Khalili developed his Super Adobe system in 1984, in response to a NASA call for designs for human settlements on the moon and Mars.
12.
When this occurred Nader Khalili partnered with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and applied his research to emergency shelters.
13.
In February 2000, Nader Khalili designed a prototype of a lunar colony made with all-natural materials near the Mojave Desert.
14.
Nader Khalili died March 5,2008, in Los Angeles of congestive heart failure.