About..

Architect in Academia : Academic in Architecture

Across my architectural academic career, my teaching and research have been closely intertwined. Mostly because, as the German saying acknowledges, it’s difficult to dance on two weddings at the same time. So I’ve tried where possible to bring them close together. But also because I enjoy learning – and research is of course, learning. It means I read around and observe my own teaching, research with a critical eye, and I write to make sense of it – in the hope that others might glean something useful through my writing- either specifically as researchers or, more generally as learners

My research falls into three areas:

1. Design-led Material Development: This is manifest in projects that bring design thinking and values into the heart of material development: Textiles, Concrete, Waste Materials, Composites and more recently Biotech-materials. This form of material development speaks to new forms of architectural and design practice; practice-based research; and technological cultures and ethics. In this work I have lead highly innovative material development that has led to patents, commissions, commercialisation and international sales. But it’s also radically altered how I view architectural practice and the materials that underpin it…as a result I think differently about architectural education. I also live this material practice in my personal life, working with my partner to make and maintain spaces by hand, slowly and creatively.
2. Spaces of Rehearsal: This practice-based research stems from early work around disability, inclusive design and street-level pedagogy, to working within communities in critical contexts. It was manifest in my role as curatorial advisor to a Belfast-based arts organisation PS² on long term projects with communities, in NI’s post-conflict context and in university-based live projects, working with local grass-roots organisation to consider new potentials and ways forward. The work is framed by pedagogical and Improvisational theory.
3. Inclusive Architecture Pedagogy – My pedagogy is informed by an inclusive, feminist stance. It was formed by my involvement in two early research projects- one on inclusive design and the other on gender in the work environment. I was also involved in some early research and writing on inclusive assessment. During a short but remarkably intense period teaching at Sheffield University, School of Architecture, I led the development of an award-winning first year curriculum called Building Clouds Drifting Walls and ran a Special Initiative Group of the Centre for Education in the Built Environment leading to the publication: ‘Building and Sustaining a Learning Environment for Inclusive Design’. The influence of both of these pedagogical ‘positions’ runs throughout the subsequent years of my career. Questions that those positions raised- around the wider purpose of live projects and the teaching of technology – were investigated further in Street Society and the Materials Studio ‘Without Precedent‘. And they continued to be central to the work I did in the Hub of Biotechnology in the Built Environment and School X.