Staff

Sarah O'Dwyer

Lecturer

Lecturing in Architectural Design Studio, Applied Technologies, Whole Life Design, Collaborative Design, Environment and Climate and Professional Studies

Sarah O’Dwyer is 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. She teaches across both the Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture programmes in SABE. Sarah's research and teaching is focused on response to climate change design issues.

TEACHING
Sarah graduated from UCD in 2005 and is highly experienced in delivering quality teaching and learning, having worked in academia since 2009 as a tutor, lecturer and a Senior Lecturer 2020-2025.

She is dedicated to and highly experienced in delivery of quality teaching and learning, and obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning in 2011 and UK Advance HE Senior Fellowship in 2026. 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 her current lecturing position, she contributes to the development of teaching and learning strategies, develops and applies innovative and appropriate teaching techniques and material, provides academic leadership, develops internal and external networks, contributes to the development of teams and individuals and to the strategic planning and delivery of teaching programmes.

PROFESSION
She is currently a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) Sustainability Task Force, having served as Chair from 2020-2022 and Vice Chair (2019, 2023, 2024). She is also a member of the RIAI Education Task Force currently (2023) reviewing Irish architectural education competencies and policy.

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

She regularly contributes to policy development and is a Member Irish Green Building Council (2022), and an Architect accredited at Conservation, Grade 3 (2019).

RESEARCH
Sarah's research centres on holistic sustainability and climate resilience, frameworks for regenerative design, alongside site and climate analysis, passive design strategies, embodied carbon and circular economy. The research centres on the use and incorporation of sustainable design practices and systems into all aspects of the built environment; and the creation of inclusive learning environments

Previous research projects saw her working with TU Dublin on an Erasmus plus funded project "Arch4Change" (https://www.arch4change.com) with 4 partner European universities; exploring the co-creation of an architectural climate emergency curriculum. She was also a research assistant on the 3 year ‘Building Change’ (https://buildingchange.ie/) project, synthesising complex analysis to key findings.

Her current PhD research also explores methods for integrating whole life design and climate change design theory into architectural education, and she has published her research and presented at numerous conferences.

PUBLICATIONS
Summaries can be found at these repository links:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Odwyer-7/research
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=H8GjibYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra