Erik L'Heureux

Through Equator Works, the design firm he founded, he works on independent projects that focus on sustainability and climate-responsive architecture in the equatorial belt.

• Name — Erik L'Heureux • Awards — Wheelwright Prize • Employer — *Monash University • NUS • Cooper Union • Washington University • Education — *Washington University in St. Louis • Princeton University • Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

L'Heureux earned his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he graduated summa cum laude. He later received a Master of Architecture from Princeton University School of Architecture and a Doctorate in Architecture and Design from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His doctoral research focused on equatorial building envelopes and tropical urbanization, earning him the RMIT Prize for Research Excellence.

From 2003 to 2025, L'Heureux was a faculty member at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he taught courses on equatorial architecture, envelope design, and Southeast Asian urbanism, and was also the Vice Dean for Special Projects and Director of the Master of Architecture program. L'Heureux served as lead designer on the NUS campus, retrofitting the Equatorial School of Architecture (SDE 1 & 3), a net-zero energy adaptive reuse project, which won the AIA New York City Design Merit Award in 2025 and INDE Award for Best of 2021, Learning Space in Australia. L'Heureux also designed the retrofit of the Yusof Ishak House, a 1979 building transformed into a net-zero energy structure. In 2025, L'Heureux was appointed professor and head of the Department of Architecture at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. A recipient of the Ruth and Norman Moore visiting professorship at Washington University in St. Louis, L'Heureux has lectured on sustainable design and equatorial architecture topics. Earlier in his career, he taught at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union in New York.

L'Heureux's research explores the intersection of climate, architecture, and urbanism, focusing on hot and wet climates, particularly in equatorial cities. His research looks at ways to develop forms and building envelopes that can respond to extreme conditions by integrating climatic elements, such as light, breeze, and shade, into the design. L'Heureux led the "1000 Singapore's" project, which explores the compact city model as a sustainable urban form.

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