Harriet Harriss
Dr. Harriet Harriss is a British architect, educator, author, and professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute, New York and a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also an INELDA-certified death doula. Her research and practice examine the changing role of architecture in society, bringing together architectural education, feminist theory, decolonial theory, environmental humanities, and professional practice to explore how architecture can respond to the intertwined challenges of climate change, social inequality, and ecological loss.
Across more than two decades, Harriss has developed an internationally recognised body of scholarship questioning who architecture serves, who gets to shape its histories, and how architectural education might better prepare practitioners for rapidly changing environmental and cultural conditions. Her work argues for an expanded understanding of architecture—not simply as the design of buildings, but as a social, political, ecological, and ethical practice capable of producing new forms of care, participation, and public imagination.
Across more than two decades, Harriss has developed an internationally recognised body of scholarship questioning who architecture serves, who gets to shape its histories, and how architectural education might better prepare practitioners for rapidly changing environmental and cultural conditions. Her work argues for an expanded understanding of architecture—not simply as the design of buildings, but as a social, political, ecological, and ethical practice capable of producing new forms of care, participation, and public imagination.
