Projects

Research

Publications

Authored Texts

Media

Information

Toronto

11 Cavalry Trail
Markham, ON
L3R 9H1 Canada

San Francisco

2830 20th Street, #208
San Francisco, CA, 94110

The Open Workshop is a multidisciplinary design workshop focused on critically re-examining the concept of an open work, first posited by Umberto Eco in 1962. With expertise ranging from architecture to urban design, The Open Workshop uses a multidisciplinary approach to provide innovative, project-specific design solutions. Recognized for its design-research, the office has a record of complex projects that engage multiple systems and stakeholders.

The office has garnered recognition through international competitions, exhibitions, and publications that focus on how design-research can renegotiate the relationship between architecture and its environment. The firm’s approach relies on transcalar design techniques that find opportunities to holistically integrate environmental, political, economic and social factors. The Open Workshop is a licensed architectural practice in the State of California, USA and the Province of Ontario, Canada (OAA).

Leadership

Neeraj Bhatia
Founding Principal

Bios

NEERAJ BHATIA is a licensed architect and urban designer whose work resides at the intersection of politics and architecture. Neeraj is founder of THE OPEN WORKSHOP, a transcalar design-research office examining the negotiation between architecture, territory, and collectivity. Select distinctions include the Architectural League Young Architects Prize, Emerging Leaders Award from Design Intelligence, and the Canadian Prix de Rome. He is an Associate Professor at the California College of the Arts where he also Directs the urbanism research lab, the Urban Works Agency. Bhatia has also held teaching positions at UC Berkeley (as the visiting Esherick Professor), UT Arlington (as the visiting Ralph Hawkins Professor), Cornell University, Rice University (As the Wortham Fellow), and the University of Toronto. He is co-editor of books Bracket [Takes Action], The Petropolis of Tomorrow, Bracket [Goes Soft], Arium: Weather + Architecture, and co-author of Pamphlet Architecture 30: Coupling — Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism and New Investigations in Collective Form. Neeraj has a Master degree in Architecture and Urbanism from MIT where he was studying on a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Waterloo.

Current Team

Clare Hacko
Duy Nguyen
Fabiana Possamai

Previous Team

Haifa Al-Gwaiz, Caleb Bentley, Kayla Bien, Rafael Berges, Andrew Bertics, Tracy Bremer, Mary Casper, Jared Clifton, Venessa Davidenko, Carly Dean, Ian Erickson, Zack Glennon, Alicia Hergenroeder, Anesta Iwan, Jeremy Jacinth, Hannah Jane Kim, Shawn Komlos, Brian Lee, Douglas Lee, Mikaela Leo, Liz Lessig, Cesar A. Lopez (Associate), Bella Mang, Shirin Monshipouri, Jonathan Negron, Bomin Park, Sonia Ramundi, Katharina Sauermann, Sayer Al Sayer, Blake Stevenson, Fei-Ling Tseng, Laura Williams, Shuang Yan, De Peter Yi, and Wei Zhao.


Collaborators

Pier Vittorio Aureli / DOGMA, Mark Baechler, Inaqui Carnicero / RICA Studio, Lorena Del Rio / RICA Studio, Alexander D'Hooghe / Organization for Permanent Modernity, Reto Geiser / MG&Co., Christoph Hesse / Christoph Hesse Architects, Richard Hindle, Karen Kubey, Jürgen Mayer H. / J. Mayer H. Architecture, Noemi Mollet / MG&Co., Maya Przybylski / InfraNet Lab, Christopher Roach/ Studio VARA, Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), Mauricio Soto / Studio-LD, Antje Steinmuller, Surface Design Inc.

Events

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at the University of Waterloo as part of the Arriscraft Lecture Series

    March 21, 2024

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at the Architectural League as part of the Emerging Voices Award

    March 7, 2024

  • Neeraj Bhatia, Irene Cheng and James Graham discussion the Politics of Form/ Form of Politics as part of a book launch at the Center for Architecture and Design SF

    March 5, 2024

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at Harvard GSD as part of the Housing Conversation Series

    February 27, 2024

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at Ohio State University as part of the Baumer Lecture Series

    January 31, 2024

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at Iowa State University

    November 17, 2023

  • ‘Life After Property’ Solo Exhibition open at Banvard Gallery, Ohio

    November 22, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at Radical Middle Grounds conference at UT Austin

    November 10, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia organizes symposium on Relearning Kinship at CCA

    October 24, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia invited to ‘At Home with the Collective: A Summit on Communal Housing’ at UIC

    October 19-20, 2023

    Organized by Alexander Eisenschmidt, this 2-day summit will gather speakers from around the world, local stakeholders and activists, as well as city officials who have radically rethought established norms of living, models of homeownership, and the formal, programmatic, material, and legal parameters of housing. Our ambition is to generate new knowledge that can confront the current crisis and speak to the potential of collective housing as a productive challenge for architecture.

  • The Open Workshop part of Archifest Singapore 2023

    September 29, 2023

  • Second Edition of ‘New Investigations in Collective Form’ now available

    September 15, 2023

    Published by ARD, the second edition contains three additional projects and five new writing pieces. Available here.

  • Neeraj Bhatia joins AIA Dallas Unbuilt Awards Jury

    September 7, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at Syracuse University, as part of their Domestic Affairs lecture series

    April 5, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures at University of Michigan, Taubman College

    March 23, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia and Sergio Lopez-Pineiro discuss ‘Typologies for Big Words’ at Harvard GSD

    March 1, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia moderates a discussion with Liz Obgu at CCA

    February 2, 2023

  • Neeraj Bhatia lectures on “Forming Life in Common” at the Cooper Union

    January 26, 2023

Recognition

Press

Awards