Hannah Berkin-Harper comes to NJIT from Street Lab, a non-profit that creates pop-up programming and placemaking in New York City, where she is the design lead. Her research interests include design for public spaces, community-centered design, participatory design methodologies, active design and environmental sustainability. She creates new designs for open streets and public spaces. She was an Urban Design Forum Rewire fellow, developing new ideas to increase biodiversity in the urban environment. Prior to her current position, she was a senior designer at Karim Rashid’s studio for nearly a decade, working on furniture, tableware, consumer products and interiors for clients all over the world. She founded HBH Design, a consultancy focusing on projects involving environmental sustainability and public space, working with both private clients and non-profits. She has taught at Montclair State University, NYU Tandon School of Engineering and, most recently, at Pratt Institute where she taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in the Industrial and Interior Design departments. Her designs have been published in the New York Times, Next City, Streetscapes for Wellness, a publication of the NYC Public Design Commission. She has been honored twice by Interior Design Magazine’s NYCxDesign Awards.

Master of Industrial Design ; Pratt Institute-Main ; ; 2007

B.A. ; Vassar College ; Studio Art ; 2001

2025 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) Bronze , Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA)

2025 NYCxDesign Honoree, Interior Design Magazine/ NYCxDesign Festival

Monday and Thursday 10:30-12:30 or by appointment

http://www.hbh-design.com

Design for public space, participatory practices, youth-led co-design, environmental sustainability, climate resilience, digital fabrication, prototyping processes.

Hannah Berkin-Harper. 2025. "Creating A Cooling Oasis in New York City." Innovation Magazine/ Quarterly publication of the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) , vol. 45 , no. 1 , pp. 32-36.

Hannah Berkin-Harper, Leslie Davol. 2024. "Design + Deploy." Urban Omnibus .

"Opinion; NY Needs Its Own Climate Solutions. How About Peaker Plants? "
City Limits, March, 2025.

"Transform Peaker Plants into Biodiversity Hubs. Part of Five Visions for Climate Positive Neighborhoods"
Urban Design Forum , October (4th Quarter/Autumn), 2024.