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Miriam Dunn

Miriam Dunn B.Arch. MRIAI

I am an architect, researcher and lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Limerick SAUL since 2006. I am currently completing a PhD on the overlap of engineering and architecture in design, teaching and practice on Structure Prototypes. I presented my practice-based research on ‘Structure Prototypes’ at the 5th International Conference on Structures and Architecture ICSA2022 in Aalborg, Denmark. As part of ICSA2022, I exhibited two large scale timber Prototype Models, ‘Multi-layer Reciprocal Frame Hall Space and Housing’ at the ‘Critical Practice’ Exhibition at CREATE, School of Architecture, Media Technology and Design in July 2022.

I was a collaborator on a major research project with three Irish Universities MTU and Crawford, UCD and TU Dublin Schools of Architecture, on ‘Re-thinking the Crit.’ I was co-editor of Rethinking the Crit: New Pedagogies in Design Education, Routledge, 2022, which “explores the challenges for education and describes how changes to feedback in education can shape the future of architecture and the creative arts.”

I teach Design Studio (from 2nd Year to 5th Year) and co-teach modules on Structures, Technology and Environment with an engineer and architect, AGE. The aim of AGE is to address issues of “structure, material and energy” in architecture. A major aspect of the teaching is a focus on built fabric and its performance in terms of durability, flexibility, and the regulatory framework, with a view to understanding how we build in the future.

I am a guest studio tutor at Schools of Architecture in UCD, TU Dublin, CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Valencia and Akademie der Kunst, Vienna.

Contact Details
Teaching Modules
Research

My current PhD practice-based research centres on the overlap of structures (field of engineering) and architecture, with a particular focus on Structure Prototype models based on Reciprocal Frames

in timber, emphasising their flexibility and adaptability as building structures, with a focus on the material and light.

In 2022, I presented my practice-based research and models of ‘Structure as Prototype: Multi-layer Reciprocal Frames’ at the ‘Critical Practice’ Exhibition at 5th International Conference on (ICSA2022, Aalborg, Denmark, 6-8 July).

From 2008 to 2018 in my role as a Lecturer at SAUL, I developed and implemented a course teaching both architecture and engineering students (first year) in collaboration with the School of Engineering, CIVIL @ UL, focusing on the overlaps of both disciplines. In my collaboration with the engineering faculty, I introduced the use of sketching and physical modelling of ‘structures in action’ with an emphasis on engineering as our main two teaching tools. This approach was the basis of research which I presented at the 1st International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA2010), Guimares, Portugal, July 2010) and in the UK and Ireland at ‘Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook’ Conference (Lincoln, 2011) and the 1st Conference for the All-Ireland Architecture Research Group, AIARG (DIT, Dublin, 2012) respectively.

My research on engineering drawings and the infrastructure works at the hydro-electric power station, Ardnacrusha, Co. Clare, was published as a contribution to The Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume IV, Yale University Press (2014) and presented at the public programme of ‘Making Ireland Modern’, St Peter’s Cork, 2016, and ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) Ireland in 2018.

Conferences

Matters of Abstraction, Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, 3rd February 2023.
Critical Practice, 5th International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA2022), University of Aalborg, Denmark, 6-8 July 2022.
Earth as Client, 9th AIARG, Conference | SAUL, Limerick, 23+24 January 2020. ‘AGE: Assembly, Gravity and Environment’, Co-presenter with Graham Petrie.
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture / European Association for Architectural Education (ACSA/EAAE) Teachers’ Conference, University of Antwerp, 2019. Conference Paper.
Emerging Research, the 2nd Annual Conference of the All-Ireland Architectural Research Group (AIARG), Limerick, January 2013. ‘Design thinking through making – structured environments’, joint paper presented with Graham Petrie.
‘Untitled 2010,’ 1st Annual All-Ireland Architectural Research Group (AIARG), DIT School of Architecture, Dublin, 20th/21st January 2012.
Recto-Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook, University of Lincoln, UK, 10th – 11th Feb 2011.
1st International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA2010), Guimares, Portugal, 2010.

Seminars and Workshops

‘Rethinking the Crit,’ Book launch and seminar, TU Dublin, 22nd September 2022. Co-organised.
Studio and Problem Based Learning (PBL) Pedagogy Workshop, Faculty of Science and Engineering, UL Seminar, 11th April 2022. Speaker.
Closing Seminar, ‘Timber Futures,’ Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, March 2022. Speaker.
‘Rethinking the Crit,’ Seminar and Workshop TU Dublin, 29/30 Jan 2020. Co-organised.

Publications
Professional Activities
Awards