Sarah O’Dwyer is an Irish architect focused on research and teaching responding to climate change design issues. She is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of the distance learning “Environmental Design of Buildings” MSc in the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University, and contributes to environmental, whole life design and Collaborative design studio in TUDublin, Ireland.
She is currently the Vice-Chair of the RIAI Sustainability Task Force, having served as Chair from 2020-2022 and a member of the RIAI Education Task Force currently reviewing Irish architectural education competencies. Sarah contributed to key RIAI Climate Change policy and guidance including the RIAI 2030 Climate Challenge and the RIAI Guide: Sustainable Design Pathways (available here https://www.riai.ie/discover-architecture/riai-research-and-policy).
In her previous practice work at KHArchitects and the interdisciplinary practice PLACE+U she worked on public housing, cluster housing guidelines, tourism and architectural master planning and age friendly neighbourhood schemes.
Current research sees her working with TUDublin on an Erasmus plus funded project “Arch4Change’’ https://www.arch4change.com with four partner European universities; exploring the co-creation of an architectural climate emergency curriculum. Her current PhD research also explores methods for integrating sustainability and climate change design theory into architectural education.