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As a teacher I believe in facilitating students to think for themselves. I encourage them to be bold and take risks in their research and design work – the university…
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As an architectural student I started keeping logbooks. These were a kind of developed sketchbook which included design ideas and my research notes. I developed them into a series of…
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During the first coronavirus lockdown in the Netherlands in 2018, I learned how to watercolour from watching YouTube tutorials. My interest is, as it always has been, cities and buildings.…
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Researcher

I have always been interested in the theory and history of architecture and the built environment, particularly since my research became more focussed on the urban. I am fascinated by people and their networks of interaction in urban space – after all, a city is not merely a collection of buildings and the spaces between them; a city is its people.

I co-founded Footprint in 2008, the e-journal dedicated to architecture theory

I am co-founder of the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) in 2012. This was made possible by a €1.2 million grant from Marie Curie Actions

Books

I have published my research in numerous books and articles over the years. Here is a selection of my books:

  • Asia

    • The Shanghai Alleyway House
    • Asian Cities: Colonial to Global
    • Aspects of Urbanization in China
    • Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

  • Citizenship and the care of the self

    • Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West
    • Contemporary Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West

  • Spatial planning

    • Celebrating Spatial Planning
    • Teaching, Learning, and Researching Spatial Planning

Links to publishers

Prizes

  • €1.2 million Marie Curie Actions ‘International Research Staff Exchange Scheme’ (IRSES) funded by the European Union’s Research Executive Agency’s Seventh Framework Programme. This grant enabled the foundation of the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden (2012)
  • Thomas Dammon Scholarship: study trip to Vienna to study the work of Otto Wagner (1991)
  • Thomas Dammon Scholarship: study trip to Finland to study the work of Alvar Aalto (1990)
  • Kildare County Council Vocational Education Committee (VEC) full scholarship for a B.Sc.Arch. at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Bolton Street (1986)
  • Royal College of Music, Dublin: under-17 piano scholarship (1983)