Elizabeth is a recipient of the 2015 AIA Young Architects Award. She graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with Distinction where she received numerous awards during her graduate studies including the Core Studio Prize, the Faculty Design Award, and the John E. Thayer Award. She has taught design studios in several Architecture programs including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University, the Boston Architectural College, and Harvard University (GSD), where she was also Lead Faculty in Architecture in their Career Discovery Summer Program from 2011-2015.

Elizabeth has been teaching Core Architecture Studios at Harvard since 2009, and currently holds a faculty position as Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University’s GSD.

The work of Merge Architects uncovers and capitalizes on opportunities for invention in the ordinary, and in so doing, develops new methods of production that combine digital fabrication and the hand-made throughout the US and abroad. Architectural Record named Merge one of the top ten emerging architecture firms in the world in 2014, and in 2015 The Architectural League of New York named us one of the top eight ‘Voices’ in architecture in North America.

Merge Architects works closely with their clients as well as teams of fabricators, artists, craftsmen and engineers to produce an architecture that embraces the art of making within a larger agenda: to re-define the urban and social boundaries of the city. An economy of means unites the office’s dual agendas of design through making and urban engagement. This process of material and urban research transcends scale, use, and context, allowing the work to address a wide range of programs, including universities, multi-family residential, commercial, institutional, academic, retail, furniture, and graphic design.

Q&A

What is your favorite album of all time?
Astral Weeks by Van Morrison.

Do you have any nicknames?
Aunt “B”.

Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
Fly!

Elizabeth Whittaker | Architalx 2017