Harriet Harriss


Harriet Harriss, is a UK-licensed architect, writer, and historian, and served as the Dean of the Pratt School of Architecture in Brooklyn, New York from 2019 to 2022. Prior to this, she led the Architecture Research Program at the in London until 2015 and the Masters in Architecture Program at Oxford Brookes from 2009-2015. Her scholarship principally concerns pioneering pedagogies in architectural education and confronts themes such as feminism; equity, decolonization, diversity and inclusion; civic engagement; the climate crisis, and queer ecologies.
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2003, Harriss established Design Heroine Architects - a participatory design practice that secured NESTA start-up funding in recognition of its social innovation objectives in 2004. Throughout her academic career, Harriet won various awards for teaching and research, including, a Diawa Foundation Fellowship, two Santander Awards, a Brookes Teaching Fellowship, a Winston Churchill Fellowship, and a EA Internationalisation fellowship. In 2016, Harriss was awarded a Clore Fellowship for cultural leadership, elected to the European Association of Architectural Education Council in summer 2017, and in 2018, awarded a Principal Fellowship of the UK's Higher Education Academy. Harriet's consultancy roles include the UK Department for Education construction industry T-Level panel, international program validations, external examining, and pedagogy design and development. From 2018-2020, Harriss chaired the RIBA's prestigious Dissertation Medal judging panel and in 2016, secured a 500k Euro research grant from Erasmus to lead an international consortium investigating the trans-sector applications of an architecture degree. Harriss has spoken across a wide range of media channels on the wider issues facing the built environment. Harriss is also recognized as an advocate for diversity and inclusion within design education and was nominated by Dezeen as a champion for women in architecture and design in 2019. Her books include Architecture Live Projects: pedagogy into practice,  Radical Pedagogies: Architectural Education & the British Tradition, A Gendered Profession, Interior Futures, Architects After Architecture, Greta Magnusson Grossman: Modern Design From Sweden To California .  Her forthcoming books include Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South, The Architecture of the Post-Anthropocene.

Biography

Harriss was born in Hampshire, UK and holds British and Irish Nationality. Before attending Manchester University to study an BA in Architecture in 1997, she qualified as a youth worker and worked with children at risk  in Manchester, UK, Quito, Ecuador and Johannesburg, South Africa. Having secured a prestigious Bradshaw Gas Scholarship at the end of her second year of her BA Architecture, she spent four months building a clinic in a mountain village close to Himla, in Nepal with The Nepal Trust. Thereafter, she took a job as a lighthouse assistant with the National Parks and Wildlife Service at Greencape Lighthouse in Disaster Bay, Australia.

Career

After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2003, Harriss established Design Heroine Architects - a participatory design practice that won start-up funding for its social innovation objectives from NESTA in 2004. Throughout her academic career, Harriet won various awards for teaching and research, including, a Diawa Foundation Fellowship, two Santander Awards, a Brookes Teaching Fellowship, a Winston Churchill Fellowship, and a HEA Internationalisation fellowship. In 2016, Harriss was awarded a Clore Fellowship for cultural leadership, elected to the European Association of Architectural Education Council in summer 2017, and in 2018, awarded a Principal Fellowship of the UK's Higher Education Academy.
Harriet's consultancy roles include the UK Department for Education construction industry T-Level panel, international program validations, external examining, and pedagogy design and development. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Harriet Harriss chaired the RIBA's prestigious Dissertation Medal judging panel in 2018 and in 2016, secured a 500k Euro research grant from Erasmus to lead an international consortium investigating the trans-sector applications of an architecture degree. Harriss has spoken across a wide range of media channels on the wider issues facing the built environment. Harriss is also recognized as an advocate for diversity and inclusion within design education and was nominated by Dezeen as a champion for women in architecture and design in 2019. Her books include Architecture Live Projects: pedagogy into practice,  Radical Pedagogies: Architectural Education & the British Tradition, A Gendered Profession, Interior Futures, Architects After Architecture, Greta Magnusson Grossman: Modern Design From Sweden To California.  Architects After Architecture, Greta Magnusson Grossman: Modern Design From Sweden To California. Her forthcoming books include Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South, The Architecture of the Post-Anthropocene.
She is the recipient of a Clore Fellowship and a Churchill Fellowship
In 2019 she was appointed Dean of Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

Awards and recognition

  • 2018 Awarded Principal Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy
  • 2016-17 CLORE Fellowship - Leadership Programme
  • 2016 A Design Award ‘Social’ Category: Refugee Wearable Project
  • 2013 Santander Staff Development Award & Santander Scholars Award
  • 2013 Higher Education Academy HEA Seminar Award, HEIF Award, BBC Expert Women Award
  • 2012 Higher Education Academy Internationalisation Fellowship Awardee
  • 2011 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship
  • 2010-12 Oxford Brookes Associate Teaching Fellowship