Merge Architects

MERGE architects is a practice that invents through collaboration. Founded by Elizabeth Whittaker, the firm’s work addresses multiple scales including commercial, institutional, retail, private residential, multi-family housing, as well as graphic and furniture design. The office works side-by-side with the client and 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 in and around the city. The work combines both digital fabrication and the hand made by working through a cross-disciplinary as well a cross-production process. The work of MERGE architects has been widely published both nationally and internationally and has received multiple awards including twelve AIA/BSA awards, a citation for the international Harbor Park Pavilion competition in Boston, second place for the new AIA/BSA Boston Headquarters, and just recently received a Best of Year Award from Interior Design Magazine for their project Lightwell. Elizabeth has lectured extensively within the US and abroad, and was just recently named one of the “15 Young Firms to Watch” by Residential Architect magazine. Elizabeth has also served on the Boston Society of Architects/AIA Board of Directors and has been nominated for the National American Institute of Architects, Young Architect’s Award. She graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with Distinction where she received numerous awards during her graduate studies. Elizabeth approaches architecture as a discipline embedded in both practice and academia. She has taught design studios in several Architecture programs including Harvard University (GSD), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University, and the Boston Architectural College. Elizabeth currently holds a position as Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.