Sarah Lippmann

Sarah K. Lippmann has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt since 2017. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism at Drexel University. She teaches a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses at both institutions, from undergraduate and graduate thesis, interiors theory, upper level speculative and foundation design studio courses, to Portfolio Development and Colors Materials and Lighting.

She received a BFA from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and worked as a theater professional for over two decades. After receiving her MS in Interior Design from Pratt Institute, she started her own residential practice while also working in scenic design.  Interpreting emotions into physical space is where her former career as a theater professional and her current professional design practice, teaching, and research overlap. Theater examines human psychology by manifesting a three-dimensional experience from a written source, and her design practice is a continuation of this, exploring the storytelling of interiors and how the body inhabits them at human scale.

A lifelong sailor, in her spare time she volunteers with the non-profit Hudson River Community Sailing, where she helped found a mentorship program to give female-identifying sailors a safe space to learn on and off the water. She has also participated in their annual charity regatta for the last seven years, raising money for their STEM learning program benefiting underserved middle and high school students, where her all-female race team has broken fundraising records.

BFA – NYU, Tisch School of the Arts (Drama)
MS – Pratt Institute (Interior Design)

Visual representation, a consistent focus in her teaching, research, and creative work, is integral to conveying design intent and directly tied to emotional response. She looks to speculative fiction and design as a means to explore innovative representation and unconventional design solutions, tapping into the limitlessness of the imagination. Similarly, she is exploring the notion of home in global literary works of the 20th century through the lens of magical realism, developing a cross-cultural examination of fictional representation as it intersects with habitable and realized spatial experiences. She is also currently analyzing interiority in fictional works by female authors who focus on domesticity and home, translating the protagonist’s lived experiences and emotions into digital collages.