Rafi Segal

Visiting Professor

Architect, urbanist and scholar, Rafi Segal received his PhD from Princeton University and his Master of Science and professional degree from Technion–Israeli Institute of Technology. Segal has over 17 years of professional experience including collaboration with Zvi Hecker on the design of the Palmach History Museum built in Tel Aviv, and senior designer for several urban projects including a master plan for the Boston Seaport District on behalf of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. He recently re-established his own practice in the US, which is involved in both research and professional work. Among the office’s current work is Villa 003 of the International Ordos 100 Project in Inner Mongolia, China; the Kitgum Museum for Peace and War Archive in Uganda; a housing project on the island of Andros, Greece; and participation in the MoMA project and forthcoming exhibition Foreclosed: Re-housing the American Dream. Segal is co-author of Cities of Dispersal (Wiley and Sons, 2008), Territories – Islands, Camps and Other States of Utopia (KW, Walther Konig, 2003), and A Civilian Occupation–The Politics of Israeli Architecture (Verso, Babel, 2003). His work has been reviewed and exhibited internationally at Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City; KunstWerk, Berlin; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Kunsthall, Malmo; UC Berkeley and others. He teaches architecture and urban design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is currently visiting Professor at the Cooper Union School of Architecture.

Projects & Links

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.