Are you a born architect? Was it always the dream?
My family background is in construction and the built environment, and I would have been around building sites quite a bit as a child. So architecture was something I always wanted to do, and I love the diversity of the job.
Architecture spans the arts, engineering, the sciences and business and social issues, and the role of architect is to synthesise, to bring people with you in complex situations. Sometimes you might be at a board meeting in the morning, then in the afternoon you are up a ladder chatting to someone on site. It’s always interesting.
How did you develop an interest in academic research?
I sometimes call myself an accidental academic. I studied architecture and went into practice. I became fascinated by how architecture is implemented, the processes that happen to turn a design into a building – everything from identifying the problem and the people needed, to managing the complexity of planning, law, regulations and contracts.
I started teaching professional practice to graduate architects in UCD more than 20 years ago, and through that I moved full-time into academia, lecturing and carrying out research.
What topics in particular have captured your interest?
I work on built environment issues, including building standards, housing, urbanism, sustainability and the construction industry – this includes climate adaptation and environmental protection, but most importantly it’s about people in the built environment and their health, wellbeing and safety. They are all pretty hot topics at the moment.
How has the pandemic affected how you work?
The move to online working has positives and negatives. One positive is technology, and how social media lets experts share information much more quickly and easily, and in general, people in the research community are very generous with their expertise – you can have conversations with top-level researchers in real time and even in different languages. This openness and informality enables collaboration across different disciplines. However, there can be a downside if those with agendas misrepresent it, or media oversimplifies complex issues. My areas of work are very political and heavily dominated by interest groups, so I think it’s important to counter that when it happens.
Have other aspects of life changed for you during the pandemic?
With four children it’s a busy household, and like everyone we were disrupted. We have all been online at home for work, college and school, and there hasn’t been much downtime. But you just rethink your routine and adjust to the new environment.
What are your current thoughts on ventilation and Covid-19?
The pandemic was framed as a medical mystery, and this thinking is still a real barrier to prevention. Effectively we have an indoor pandemic due to building failures, where trapped indoor air allows the virus to build up and linger. Prevention is simply a matter of physics, chemistry, architecture and engineering.
The evidence is there, the scientists have not failed us in this pandemic. What I find frustrating is that policy is negotiated with lobby groups and economists, looking to restore the world as it was rather than learning about the virus and adapting.
We have seen a narrative recently that the pandemic is over. It’s not, that’s another false dawn that could set us up for a difficult winter. There are still many vulnerable people, including children, here and around the world, and we are all vulnerable if a variant emerges that overthrows the progress of the vaccination programmes.
So we need to be targeting the hotspots in the built environment, taking appropriate steps to future-proof buildings for all airborne disease and using the tools we have to prevent people from becoming infected in the first instance.
