louise harpman

louise harpman

architecture director

Louise Harpman is the founder and principal of Louise Harpman PROJECTS whose work focuses on architectural design, design research, and urban design.

Before founding PROJECTS, Louise Harpman was, for 20 years, a principal in the architecture and design firm Specht Harpman. Specht Harpman was recognized in Wallpaper* magazine’s Architects’ Directory as one of the “top 50 up and coming architectural practices from around the world.” The firm received multiple Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects and was named “Emerging Voices” by the Architectural League of New York. The firm’s designs were featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the Municipal Art Society, the Van Alen Institute, and in gallery shows in the US and UK. Specht Harpman was named “Tastemakers” by House and Garden magazine and was frequently listed as one of New York City’s “Top 100” architects by New York magazine.

Specht Harpman designed and developed the zeroHouse™, a high-performance, off-the-grid micro dwelling, as well as the Manhattan Micro Loft. Both projects established Specht Harpman as international design leaders in the micro dwelling movement. The zeroHouse™ and Manhattan Micro Loft were published in over 50 international books and magazines, including the cover of the New York Times, in Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and on Bloomberg News television. The work of the firm included residential, commercial, and institutional projects and was featured in leading professional and popular journals, including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, New York, Architectural Record, Architecture, AD, Architectural Digest, Praxis, Interior Design, Residential Architect, Metropolis, Domus, Texas Architect, and W magazine, as well as on HGTV. Over two decades Specht Harpman gained significant international recognition and their work was published on every continent except Antarctica.

Louise Harpman has always maintained a commitment to teaching as well as practice. She is a tenured Associate Professor at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and an associated faculty member at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the Department of Environmental Studies. She is also a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at NYU. Her teaching career began in 1995 and she taught previously at the Yale School of Architecture, the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, and the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, where she was Associate Dean and Fellow of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Professorship.

Louise Harpman is co-author of Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned (Prestel, 2014), with Gallatin professors Peder Anker and Mitchell Joachim. She is also the co-editor of Perspecta 30: Settlement Patterns (MIT Press, 1999), with Evan Supcoff, in addition to many popular and academic articles. She is a co-founder of Global Design NYU, which advances design innovation and environmentalism.

Louise Harpman is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B. cum laude in East Asian Studies), University of Cambridge (M.Phil. in Social Anthropology), and Yale University (M.Arch. in Architecture).