astronomy

Samia Henni

Samia Henni is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Samia Henni rather than just read about it. In short: Samia Henni is an architect, a historian, and an exhibition maker of the built, destroyed, and imagined environments. Currently, she teaches history and theory of architecture at McGill University's Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture.

Key takeaways

Samia Henni belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Samia Henni to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Samia Henni from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Samia Henni is an architect, a historian, and an exhibition maker of the built, destroyed, and imagined environments. Currently, she teaches history and theory of architecture at McGill University's Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture. Her teaching focuses on the intersection of the built and destroyed environments with colonial practices and military operations from the early 19th century up to the present days.

Career Samia Henni studied at the École polytechnique d'architecture et d'urbanisme in Algiers; Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana; The Berlage Institute in Rotterdam; and at Goldsmiths, University of London and has received her Ph.D. from ETH Zurich. Before joining McGill University, she has taught in various universities such as Cornell University, Princeton University, ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, and the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva. She was the inaugural Albert Hirschman Chair (2021–22) for Identity Passions Between Europe and the Mediterranean at the Institute for Advanced Study (IMéRA) in Marseille; a Visiting Professor (Fall 2021) at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich; and a Geddes Visiting Fellow (Spring 2021) at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), Edinburgh College of Art, the University of Edinburgh. Henni is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (EN, gta Verlag, 2017, 2024; FR, Edition B42, 2019), in which she examined French colonial territorial transformations and spatial counterinsurgency measures in Algeria under colonial rule, especially during the Algerian Revolution (1954–1962). She is the editor of War Zones: gta papers 2 (gta Verlag 2018) and Deserts Are Not Empty (Columbia Books on Architecture and the city, 2022, 2025). She has created various exhibitions, including Psychocolonial Spaces (2025–) at Ar/Ge Kunst in Bolzano; Performing Colonial Toxicity (2023–) at Framer Framed in Amsterdam, gta Exhibitions at ETH Zurich, The Mosaic Rooms in London, DOC! in Paris, Kunstraum Bethanian in Berlin, Brown University, Carlton University, and the Centre de design de l'Université du Quebec à Montreal; Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria (2017–2022) at the gta Institute, ETH Zurich; The New Institute in Rotterdam; Archive Kabinett in Berlin; the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, La Colonie in Paris, VI PER Gallery in Prague, AAP Exhibitions at Cornell University, the Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia, and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Writing

Books Toxicité coloniale : Documenter le paysage radioactif dans le Sahara. Translated by Marc Saint-Upéry. Paris: Editions B42, 2026. (In French). Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Nuclear Architecture and Landscape in the Sahara. Amsterdam: If I Can't Dance and Framer Framed; Zurich: edition fink, 2024, 2025. Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria. Zurich: gta Verlag, 2017, 2024. Architecture de la contre-révolution: L'armée française dans le nord de l'Algérie. Translated by Marc Saint-Upéry. Paris: Editions B42, 2019. (In French).

Edited Volumes Deserts Are Not Empty. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the city, 2022. <br> With contributions from Saphiya Abu Al-Maati, Menna Agha, Asaiel Al Saeed, Dalal Musaed Alsayer, Aseel AlYaqoub, Yousef Awaad, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Danika Cooper, Brahim El Guabli, Timothy Hyde, Jill Jarvis, Bongani Kona, Observatoire des armements, Francisco Robles, Paulo Tavares, Alla Vronskaya, and XqSu. I deserti non sono vuoti, Italian translation of Deserts Are Not Empty. Translated by Camillo Boano and Antonio Di Campli, Descamino Book Series. Siracusa: Lettera Ventidue, 2024. (In Italian). With contributions from Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Danika Cooper, Dalal Musaed Alsayer, MariaLuisa Palumbo, Paulo Tavares, and XqSu. War Zones: gta papers 2. Zurich: gta Verlag, 2018. With contributions from Nora Akawi, Silvia Berger Ziauddin, Jean-Louis Cohen, Ismae’l Sheikh Hassan, Léopold Lambert, Asja Mandic, Eva Schreiner, Felicity D. Scott, Stanislav von Moos, Alfredo Thiermann, and Daniel Weiss.

Book chapters “Boumedienne, Niemeyer: When Militarism Meets Modernism,” Foreword to The Revolution Will Be Stopped Halfway: Oscar Niemeyer in Algeria. New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the city, 2019. “Female Agency and Psychological Warfare: French Colonial Civil and Military Interventions in Algeria, 1954–1962,” Productive Universals–Specific Situations. Clinical Engagements in Art, Architecture, Design and Urbanism. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019. “Desertcide: ‘Oil Lakes’ as Archival Violence,” in Space/War edited by Asaiel Al Saeed, Aseel Al Yaqoub, Saphiya Abu Al-Maati, and Yousef Awaad. 2021. “Forbidding Homelessness: The State and the First Lockdown in Marseille,” in Who’s Next? We Need to Talk About Homelessness, edited Daniel Talesnik and Andres Lepik. Berlin: ArchiTangle, 2021, 76–81. “‘Experience’ Rather Than ‘Project:’ Deluz Pedagogy in Post-revolutionary Algiers,” in Radical Pedagogies, edited by Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galan, Evangelos Kotsiori and Anna-Maria Meister. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2022.

Essays “Colonial Ramifications,” e-flux Architecture, History/Theory (October 31, 2018). “Photographing Confinement,” Jadaliyya, Photography and Audiovisual Narratives (July 7, 2020). “The Coloniality of an Executive Order,” Canadian Centre for Architecture, Journeys and Translations series (June 21, 2020). “Exhibition as a Form of Writing: On Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria,” in PARSE journal: On the Question of Exhibition, edited by Nick Aikens, Kjell Caminha, Jyoti Mistry, and Mick Wilson, 2021. “Oil, Gas, Dust: From the Sahara to Europe,” in Coloniality of Infrastructure, e-flux Architecture, 2021. “Fanon on Colonial Space,” in ARCH+ no. 246 Zeitgenössische feministische Raumpraxis (February 2022): 164–165. “The Battle for Internationalization and Independence,” in The Funambulist no. 42: Algerian Independence and Global Revolution 1962–2022 (July–August 2022): 46–53.

Exhibitions Performing Colonial Toxicity:[1]

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Samia Henni

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Samia Henni claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Samia Henni before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Samia Henni ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Samia Henni

In research: Samia Henni appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Samia Henni in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Samia Henni is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Algerian curators, Algerian women curators, Architectural historians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Samia Henni outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Samia Henni in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Samia Henni means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Samia Henni out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samia Henni in simple terms?

Why does Samia Henni matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Samia Henni?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Samia Henni.