Sarah Whiting. An influential voice in architectural theory and practice
- In transit
- Apr 25
- 9 mins
Sarah Whiting is a leading figure in contemporary architecture. Her career brings together professional practice, teaching and criticism, with an interdisciplinary approach and a transformative vision of design. Through her academic leadership, she fosters debate on architecture’s role in society, encourages diverse communities and creates spaces for reflection, shaping new paradigms in architectural education and practice.
Sarah Whiting is one of the most influential voices in American academia, focusing on architecture’s public dimension and an inclusive vision of the city. She is the Dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, where she holds the Josep Lluís Sert Chair, and a founding partner of WW Architecture, the practice she co-founded with Ron Witte. The daughter of academics with strong ties to France – her mother was French, and her father a professor of French literature – her education spans multiple areas of architecture.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale, where she was an editor for the university publication Yale Daily. During this time, she met Peter Eisenman, a key figure for critics of her generation, who encouraged her to continue her studies in architecture. After her initial studies at Yale, where she explored urban theory and history, Whiting pursued a Master’s Degree in Architecture at Princeton. She later completed a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture at MIT, under the supervision of Stanford Anderson.
However, an academic background alone does not fully capture the complexity of her profile. During her formative years, she worked at three key firms that significantly shaped her professional development: with Peter Eisenman at Yale, with Michael Graves at Princeton and with Rem Koolhaas (OMA) in Rotterdam. Her decision to work with three such influential architects and thinkers reflects her intellectual ambition and her continuous exploration of the nature of architectural design.
Talking about design before architecture
Whiting has developed a keen ability to critically analyse architectural arguments in projects. Her interdisciplinary background has enabled her to build a theoretical framework through which she consistently advocates for a holistic, generalist approach to architecture. In fact, she prefers to speak of design rather than architecture, reflecting her ambition to transform the world through forms.
After completing her PhD, she began her career as a theorist, editor and academic, establishing herself as a leading figure in the English-speaking academic world, particularly among those thinkers who offered an alternative to mainstream architectural theory. A key moment in her career came in 2002 with the publication of the essay Notes Around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism, co-written with Robert Somol. At just five pages, this text sparked an intense debate in theoretical circles for the next decade. For the first time in many years, it proposed an alternative to the prevailing dialectical thinking in critical architecture. While figures like Rudolf Wittkower, Colin Rowe, Peter Eisenman and K. Michael Hays focused their debates on disciplinary autonomy and argued in dichotomous terms (form versus performativity, form versus programme, and so on), Somol and Whiting introduced a radically different proposal. “We advocated for an architecture that was cool, accessible, popular and more concerned with environmental impact than the complexity of theoretical discourse”, she explains.
© Josep TomàsDespite her busy academic career, Sarah Whiting has never wanted to give up professional practice. “Through our firm WW, with Ron Witte, we work on projects in different countries, which allows for an ongoing exchange between architectural theory and practice”, she explains. Her work spans both stairways and geographies, always with an optimistic outlook on the world. “I’m a curious person, and I’m deeply interested in how we live, especially given today’s complexities”. From academia, she explores architecture’s capacity to engage in discussions about the state of contemporary civic space; from criticism, she broadens the conversation about public space; and from professional practice, she creates spaces of connection, driven by the ambition to build a better future. “One of the challenges we face as architects is helping people relate to and connect with public space. Today, everyone is glued to their mobile phones, and there’s a lack of eye contact. We need to find ways to overcome isolation and foster connections between people from diverse backgrounds. For example, through green spaces, certain urban furniture, or even the opportunities for interaction that dogs offer”, she says.
Where academia and practice intertwine
In Sarah Whiting’s view of architecture, there are no rigid hierarchies or linear processes. Her approach is a network of ideas that continuously feed into one another: critical reflection enables her to write with authority on architectural projects, academic debate helps her test and expand her architectural thinking, and professional practice gives her the opportunity to challenge the status quo of the industry she operates in.
Those who know her speak of her generosity and optimism – a deeply architectural outlook that places trust in design and in the role of architects as creators of spaces, capable of transforming environments and fostering consensus. “I avoid both naive simplifications and overly baroque arguments, as well as eccentric methodologies”, she says. Her work, always collaborative, reflects this philosophy: from her partnership with Somol to her work with Witte, her editorial contributions – most notably editing the writings of Ignasi de Solà-Morales – and her academic leadership, everything she does is rooted in the belief that design has the power to bring together differences and shape a more inclusive future.
Her approach, known as projective architecture, moves away from analytical methods and theoretical rigidity, instead promoting action and performativity. “I am convinced that architects have the power to transform shared spaces in ways that support both individual expression and collective engagement”, she asserts.
In academia, her commitment to education sets her apart from the prevailing model of architecture schools as mere training grounds for the job market. For Whiting, “the role of university is to create ‘bubbles of time’ – spaces where students can reflect, experiment and find their own voice within the broad spectrum of architectural approaches”. To this end, she champions diverse, inclusive and welcoming communities, where debate and experimentation are essential.
Sarah Whiting’s appointment as dean of Harvard’s GSD came at a complex time, shaped by the impact of COVID-19 and the social upheaval of the Black Lives Matter movement. Her leadership represents the institutionalisation of a shift in American academic discourse. At a time when prestigious universities play a key role in political debate and social transformation, her vision for the GSD has turned the school into a hub for architects, intellectuals and academics whose influence extends beyond the United States. From this platform, Whiting continues to drive the conversation on the potential of design in urban life and invites others to take part in it. She did just that at an event organised by the CCCB last January. Following a brief presentation on the challenges facing public space today, she spoke to a packed audience in the Mirador Room, sharing her thoughts on the role of architectural education in shaping architects as agents of change. “We need to bring people out of isolation”, she remarks.
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