Sarah O'Dwyer

I am an architect, lecturer and researcher focused on climate responsive design, curriculum for climate change design in architectural education and practitioner support for transition to climate responsive design. 

I teaches across  both the Bachelor of Architecture  and Master of Architecture programmes in School of Architecture, Building and Environment.

My research and teaching is focused on response to climate change design issues.  

Having recently returned to the Irish University landscape after 17 years as a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the Welsh School of Architecture, I currently teach across  both the Bachelor of Architecture  and Master of Architecture programmes in the School of Architecture, Building and Enviroment (SABE). My research and teaching is focused on response to climate change design issues.

I am currently a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) Sustainability Task Force, having previously served as  both Chair (2020-2022) and Vice Chair (2019, 2023, 2024). 

I am also a member of the RIAI Education Task Force (since 2023) reviewing Irish architectural education competencies and policy. 

In my previous practice work at KHArchitects (Clonmel, Ireland) and the interdisciplinary practice PLACE+U I worked on public housing, cluster housing guidelines, tourism and architectural master planning and age friendly neighbourhood schemes. 

I regularly contribute to policy development and am a Member Irish Green Building Council (2022), and an Architect accredited at Conservation, Grade 3 (2019)

My research addresses a fundamental challenge in the built environment:

Why, despite the urgency of the climate emergency, does the architecture profession continue to treat sustainability as peripheral to design excellence — and what needs to change in how architects are educated and supported in practice to reverse this?

I am generally interested in a variety of scales with the broad theme  making climate resilient design mainstream- in education, practice, wider professional culture and community.

My work traces this problem across three interconnected scales, and running through them all is the idea of architecture as climate: an inseparable design quality which encompasses theory but also spatial justice, cultural value and long term resilience.  

1.      At the level of the profession/architecture culture, I examine how sustainability has been framed as a separate, largely technical concern — distinct from 'real' architecture — and what it would mean to reintegrate holistic climate-responsive thinking into mainstream design practice. This involves how practitioners can be supported and what changes in culture are required to make these changes.

2.      At the level of the curriculum/school culture, I investigate how architectural education can move beyond isolated sustainability modules to achieve deep, structural integration of climate change design across whole programmes. This involves moving from a conent/theory based approach to one of culture change and mindset shifting.

3.      And at the level of the educator/individual values, I identify a critical and largely unresearched gap: that changing curricula will not be enough without simultaneously upskilling educators — particularly the practitioner-tutors who make up a large proportion of architecture school teaching staff — in both sustainability knowledge and in the student-centred, reflective pedagogies needed to teach it effectively. This involves exploration of educator values, knowledge, bias and influence.

I am highly experienced in delivering quality teaching and learning, having worked in academia since 2009 as a tutor, lecturer and a Senior Lecturer 2020-2025. 

I have achieved teaching and learning qualification, obtaining a Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning in 2011 and UK Advance HE Senior Fellowship in 2026, which demonstrates a comprehensive understanding and effective practice from which I lead or influence the learning and teaching practices of others (peers, colleagues, mentees, etc.) who teach and/or support high-quality learning. 

Having previously been a Senior Lecturer and a Programme Leader of the interdisciplinary “Environmental Design of Buildings” MSc at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University and in my current lecturing position, I contribute to the development of teaching and learning strategies, develop and apply innovative and appropriate teaching techniques and material, provide academic leadership, develop internal and external networks, contribute to the development of teams and individuals and to the strategic planning and delivery of teaching programmes. I was nominated for a teaching excellene award in 2024.

My current teaching portfolio centres on climate, sustainabilty and environmental design. I also lead on professiona studies and architectural design studio at undergraduate level, as well as whole life and collaboratie design at masters level. 

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

2025

Co-Editor of this issue as well as co- author:

Almond, C., McVicar, M., O’Dwyer, S., & Roberts, A. 2025.  Productive-Disruptive: spaces of exploration in-between architectural pedagogy and practice Charrette, 10(1), 1-8.2017

2025

O’Dwyer, S and Tabbal, M. (2025) Ethics of climate in architectural education, Building Change project. Presented at AIARG, Waterford 2025.

2023

O'Dwyer, S. Kinneri, L and Brockwell, A. (2023) Mindsets and Mindshifts: The critters within. Workshp Presented at AIARG,Dublin, 2023.

2022

O'Dwyer, S. and Gwilliam, J (2022) Evaluating Irish Architectural Education: towards integrated equitable design excellence in our cities, Presented at PLEA conference "Will Cities Survive?" PLEA, Santiago 2022

2018

Gwilliam, J. and O'Dwyer, S. (2018). Delivering sustainable design excellence: The potential role of architectural precedent. Presented at: PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy Within the Two-Degree Limit, Hong Kong, China, 10-12 December 2018PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy Within the Two-Degree Limit: Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Vol. 2. PLEA pp. 694-700.

Banteli, A., O'Dwyer, S. and Du Plooy, A. (2018). E-portfolio application for student reflection and engagement in three case studies in an architecture school in the United Kingdom. Presented at: 10th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Palma, Spain, 2-4 July 2018EDULEARN18 Proceedings. pp. 1179-1188., (10.21125/edulearn.2018.0380)

2017

O'Dwyer, S. and Brophy, V. (2017). Bridging the gap: A framework for a robust sustainable design process. Presented at: PLEA 2017, Edinburgh, UK, 3-5 July 2017.

Banteli, A., Du Plooy, A. and O'Dwyer, S. (2017). Collaborative learning: developing a framework for the integration of online collaborative learning tools. Presented at: 9th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Barcelona, Spain, 3-5 July 2017Proceedings of EDULEARN17 Conference.

2016

O'Dwyer, S. (2016). Ways of learning: incorporating sustainable design CPD into an architects design process. Presented at: AIARG Conference 2017, Waterford, Ireland, 27-28 Jan 2017

PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES

2023

O'Dwyer, S. et al. 2023. Architectural education: methods for integrating climate change design(ccd) in the curriculum. Presented at: AMPS: A Focus on Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning and Research in the Modern Academy, Virtual, 20-22 April 2022, Vol. 28. Vol. 2. pp. 167-189 and published in associated peer reviewed online journal

2021

Gwilliam, J. and O'Dwyer, S. 2021. Delivering sustainable design excellence: the potential role of holistic building performance evaluation. Architectural Science Review 64(1-2), pp. 47-55. (10.1080/00038628.2020.1825319)

2018

Gwilliam, J. A. and O'Dwyer, S. 2018. Architectural design and/or sustainable building: A question of language?. International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ 5(2), pp. 9-19. (10.14621/tna.20180202)

2017

O'Dwyer, S. 2017. Educating architects in environmental design: pedagogical strategies to enable the 'grasping of the unfamiliar'. Charrette 4(2), pp. 97-111.

Guidance documents/Toolkits:

RIAI, 2026. Competency Framework Architecture

RIAI, 2019. Sustainability for the Current Global Environmental Crisis. 

RIAI, 2021, Sustainable Design Pathways

TCC, 2019 Design and Best Practice Guidelines for Cluster Housing Schemes in Rural Villages.