Quilian Riano
DSGN AGNC Founder and Principal
Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture Assistant Dean
Masters of Architecture – Harvard University | Graduate School of Design
Bachelors of Design (Summa Cum Laude) – University of Florida | School of Architecture

Quilian (pronounced: Killian) is an architectural and urban designer, researcher, writer, and educator. Quilian Riano is the Assistant Dean of Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture. Previous to Pratt, Quilian was the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) associate director, where he provided strategy and design coordination across urban design, applied research, publications, and broader academic activities. He has worked in and with public institutions, such as New York City’s Department of Design and Construction as a lead design strategist and the National Park Service as an urban design consultant.

Quilian is also the founder and lead designer of DSGN AGNC, a design studio exploring new forms of political design, processes, and engagements through architecture, urbanism, landscapes, and art. Riano/DSGN AGNC’s design work has been featured at the Venice Biennale, Queens Museum of Art, Harvard University, The Storefront for Art and Architecture, The New Museum, the Center for Architecture, and the Architectural League of New York, among others. For this work, he has won awards from the Vilcek Foundation, the American Society of Landscape Architects, Harvard University, The Boston Society of Architects, and the University of Florida and received fellowships from the Design Trust for Public Space, Institute for Public Architecture, and the J. Max Bond Center for the Just City at CUNY, among others.

With over a decade of teaching experience, Riano has taught undergraduate and graduate studios in architecture, urban design, and transdisciplinary design at Pratt, Harvard University, Columbia University, Carleton University, Parsons School of Design/The New School, Syracuse University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, the City College of New York, and Kent State University.

Quilian is also one of the core initiators and members of Dark Matter University, a democratic network committed to creating new forms of knowledge and knowledge production, institutions, collectivity, practice, design, and community culture that expand the circle of those contributing to anti-racist design pedagogy and practice, and build power and share knowledge to build capacity and resilience in communities beyond the preconceived boundaries of design fields.

Quilian holds a Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida and a Masters of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD).

QUILIAN’S TEACHING CV.