CCAE: Cork School of Architecture - Doctoral Theses

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Discourse formation in architecture exhibitions - an oligoptical approach
(University College Cork, 2023) McLaughlin, John; McCartney, Kevin; Rascaroli, Laura; University College Cork
This thesis is submitted for the degree of Ph.D. by Prior Published Work by a practicing architect who joined the university mid-career. The publications were written for a series of international biennale exhibitions between 2012 and 2020. The spatial designs of the pavilions were conceived as embodied manifestoes rather than as supplements to the texts, so that the relationship between them has become the object of the study. In this way, architectural discourse is ‘made public’ (Latour, 2005b: 14-43), and the exhibition acts as a discursive space. The first chapter of the thesis locates the origins of these publications in response to debates about autonomy and criticality in architecture that began in the nineteen-seventies. This part of the thesis concludes by drawing on more recent work by architectural theorists questioning the autonomy of architectural artefacts under globalisation, where the production of components is often displaced geographically away from the global north (Heynen, 2002: 378-399 and Cruz, 2013: 205-216). The second chapter of the thesis concerns the pavilion as an architectural typology. This chapter then analyses the national pavilions built in the Venetian Giardini following World War Two and reads them as representative architecture of the geopolitical order that emerged at that time. In Part Two, the first prior publication was the catalogue of the Pavilion of Ireland at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. The pavilion highlighted the fact that Ireland is one of the most globalised countries in the world and that, in a digitally networked world, prominence is determined by connectivity to the emerging global networks rather than by geographic centrality. The second and third prior publications were chapters in a co-edited book titled Infra-Eireann: Infrastructure and the Architectures of Modernity in Ireland 1916-2016, that was researched and written in response to Rem Koolhaas’ theme for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale Absorbing Modernity, where national pavilions were asked to research the previous hundred years of modernisation (Koolhaas, 2014: 22). In response to Koolhaas’ theme, the book explored the ways that modern infrastructures had been used by the newly independent Irish state to make Ireland modern. The fourth prior publication was a co-authored paper published in ARENA Journal of Architectural Research in 2018. The paper explored the relationship between the research and the design of the 2014 pavilion that embodied both a support structure and a way of seeing. The fifth and last of the prior publications was written for the second Biennale of Artistic Research in Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen over the winter of 2019-20. The exhibit and the associated published paper, focused on a real project for the National Archives of Ireland, restructuring the building to provide space for exhibitions as a means of making public the research that happens there. It reimagined the Archive as a ‘productive space of conflict’ (Miessen, 2019: 9-28). In Part Three, the Commentary on the Corpus of Research begins by theoretically framing the prior publications in response to the questions posed in the first part . It challenges the idea of an essential culture, and it proposes an alternative reading of culture that follows the great theorist of decolonisation Edward Said. Section two of the Commentary follows Bruno Latour and cuts through the opposition between autonomy and criticality that developed in architectural theory at the end of the twentieth century. As an alternative to the ‘panoramic’ way of seeing, Latour proposes an ‘oligopticon’ where ‘sturdy but extremely narrow views of the (connected) whole are made possible’ (Latour, 2005a:181). The third section of the Commentary situates the pavilion-making practice between words and works and submits this as an example of the ‘halfway house’ that Halina Dunin-Woyseth proposed as an alternative to the two existing models for doctoral research in architecture (2006: 81-100). The thesis concludes by arguing that these two alternatives were both predicated on the respective autonomy of theory on the one hand and of practice on the other. Following Latour, it proposes a hybrid practice, constructing oligoptica, where theory is enacted through design.
Architectural Storywork as a discursive design practice: on self-determined Indigeneity, architectural autonomy, and the transmission of knowledge through architectural discourses in Bali, Indonesia
(University College Cork, 2024) Brook, Alastair; Mccartney, Kevin; Mulrooney, Sarah; McMahon, Muireann
This study documents the co-creation and implementation of a discursive, decolonial design practice with the Pusat Kegiatan Perempuan (PKP) community as they begin to re-design their Community Centre in rural Bali, Indonesia. This is timely, as architectural scholars call on the discipline to develop new decolonial practices and discursive design cultures that aim to reinstate difference, value alterity, and engage with pluriversal narratives; unsettling the theoretical and practical foundations of architectural history. This study also answers calls from Indigenous scholars to activate Storywork as a practice-based and decolonising methodology within architecture by developing and formalising a novel research methodology by applying the Indigenous practice of Storywork through a discursive architectural lens; an approach I have termed Architectural Storywork. A situated Storywork methodology is developed through the application of three parallel research strategies related to the metaphorical movements of Identity, Politics, and Knowledge within the PKP community. Discursive practices, including the co-creation of physical and conceptual architectural models, and rigorous analyses are implemented with the PKP community through guided storytelling workshops. This process defines an ‘architectural charge’ for the PKP Community Centre, outlining the buildings’ architectural responsibility to current and future inhabitants. Where genuine co-creation occurred, Architectural Storywork was able to support the PKP community in establishing new critical perspectives of Balinese Indigeneity, reconceptualising their architectural autonomy, and reflecting upon and retelling their Indigenous knowledge as creative transformational praxis through architectural discourse.
Appropriate housing choices for a whole lifetime – how accessible are new housing proposals in Ireland?
(University College Cork, 2024) Busby, Kevin; Mccartney, Kevin; Harrison, Jim D.
The availability of appropriate accessible housing options in Ireland, in the event of an immediate need, and to also future-proof one’s living accommodation in later years is of paramount importance. The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) recommend that 90% of all new houses should be designed to lifetime adaptable criteria. [1] Their proposal, in part reflects the reality of an ageing population, living longer but experiencing frailty in old age. “The Place Alliance Housing Audit (2020) found that three-quarters of new builds in England were ‘mediocre’ or ‘poor’. Developers are not incentivised to build well-designed projects.” [2] While there are some encouraging signs of contemporary small developments adopting Universal Design (UD) principles towards a new typology, the significant majority of recently completed housing schemes in Ireland reflect the reality of the above statement from the UK, regarding accessibility. Additionally, a large proportion of the existing housing stock is either unsuitable or too expensive to adapt to the needs of, not only older people to age-in-place, but to all those requiring extra space due to mobility issues. Housing, as one aspect of the Irish built environment, affects and is affected by the decisions of a diverse variety of individuals and organisations, from the housing minister, in government through to the end-user, the resident. State bodies, legislators, advisory groups, developers, and designers all play their part in the process, each with their own priorities and expertise. In the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD), Ireland has an impressive grounding in research into UD, influenced by the ground-breaking work of Ron Mace in the 1980s. Recent publications mark significant steps in the understanding of what is required to help older people to age-in-place or to provide a new type of appropriate housing for all of Ireland’s current and future population. This is very helpful instruction for architects, designers and educators, aiming to ensure an acceptable standard of accessibility in new housing design. Questions remain, however, namely: what aspects of current design proposals fall short of UD requirements and are CEUD recommendations being put into practice? The methodology behind the research, informed by an initial study of existing suburban housing, developed into an analysis of a time and location-specific database of recent, new – as yet unbuilt - housing proposals. The designs are considered against a set of lifetime homes criteria given the following 2 scenarios: 1. a wheelchair user or person with significant mobility issues who is trying to buy a new house or has an immediate need to find a rental home to move into. 2. an elderly person, hospitalized after a fall who wishes to return to their new home. The research findings suggest that only a small minority of new housing in Ireland is, at least functionally accessible. Recommendations with regard to policy, legislation, and education form part of the concluding discussion, with a specific emphasis on the professional development of architects and designers.
Participation and triangulation: learning from non-institutional international Architecture Live Projects through a comparative case approach
(University College Cork, 2022) Lehane, Jack R.; Mulrooney, Sarah; Linehan, Denis; Mccartney, Kevin
Noticeable opportunities for architecture education are opening up in the world, markedly non-institutional international Live Project networks that practice independently of university course structures. As distinct from conventional volunteer-based construction in the humanitarian development sector, this emergent and ‘independent’ model of international architecture education represents a unique intersection between the Live Project and new spatial agency. However, despite the increasingly participative nature of Live Project initiatives, there is still a lack of research into the role stakeholder participation plays in the first place, exacerbating this emergent model’s underrepresentation within formal research and literature not least due to its recent and decentralised nature. To address this knowledge gap — and in line with calls for a departure from traditional understandings of participation in an era of globalisation — this thesis employs a first principles reasoning and (re)turns to the fundamental question: What constitutes stakeholder participation for this new model of Live Project in the first place? Through real world participation and a comparative case study approach, this thesis embarks beyond the boundary of the university structure and engages multiple stakeholder groups across three real world Live Project cases in Lebanon, Fiji and Nepal. Each case is investigated according to three sub-research questions: • What can the built artefact reveal about the stakeholder participation? • How are these aspects of stakeholder participation experienced by the stakeholders? • What are the extended implications of this participation for the organisation and the community? Mixed methods were utilised for concurrent data collection during and after each case study — participant observation, semi-structured interviews and post-occupancy participatory walking probe. Following this, three phases of sequential data analysis were employed to measure, contextualise, and assess the implications of stakeholder participation in the projects. The findings offer an original and measurable understanding of stakeholder participation, as revealed through the built artefact. As a result, this research formalises this emergent typology of Live Project through comparative measure; demonstrating distinctions from, and extendedly limitations of, Architecture Live Projects in academic institutions. This extends our current knowledge of how stakeholder participation in these Live Projects operates, informing participation for the organisations and the communities within future initiatives, and offers an empirical basis to broader participatory conditions of an emerging architectural space.
AI-assisted analysis of heart sounds and interpretation of acoustic representation of brainwaves in neonates
(University College Cork, 2022-08-18) Gomez Quintana, Sergi; Popovici, Emanuel; Temko, Andriy; Wellcome Trust; Grand Challenges Canada; Science Foundation Ireland
Numerous reports from World Health Organisation (WHO) consistently list the diseases of the heart and the brain among the top three causes of death across the globe. In low and low-to-middle-income countries, the neonatal stage is the most dangerous of the whole life and is a time of particular concern for medical professionals and parents. Timely detection of abnormalities during the first days of life allows medical staff to make informed decisions which have life-saving consequences. For this, continuous monitoring is required and it has several challenges in a clinical setting. First, acquiring physiological data from neonates is not trivial, often involving time-consuming processes that require specialised training. Second, specific monitoring equipment is often expensive and not affordable in low-income communities. More importantly, the complexity of the data may be difficult to interpret even for trained professionals and the required expertise might not be available 24/7. Alternative methods and tools that are low cost and require minimum training while providing the accuracy level of a specialist medical professional are required. This work deals with the development of such methods for the analysis of neonatal heart and brain signals by means of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-guided sonification. Sound analysis can play an important role as a non-invasive, intuitive, and cost-effective tool to facilitate the interpretation of physiological signals. Heart auscultation is already part of the clinical examination routine. It uses a stethoscope, which is a low cost and reliable tool to screen for neonatal heart defects. However, heart sound interpretation is subjective, dependent on the assessor’s hearing acuity and the acquired level of expertise. Assistance from AI can provide an objective interpretation of heart sounds to complement the traditional auscultation method. A novel, accurate method for detecting congenital heart disease in phonocardiogram (PCG) signals using AI is presented. When dealing with the brain abnormalities in newborns, neonatal seizures are one of the most common neurological conditions, and they need to be treated as a medical emergency with prompt detection and intervention. Electroencephalography (EEG), the gold standard for monitoring electrical brain activity, is often difficult to interpret visually and requires a highly specialised medical professional. These professionals might not be readily available in low or medium-income settings, and even in high-income countries, they might be available only in tertiary care centres and not present 24/7. AI-driven sonification of EEG for detection of neonatal seizures, which is developed in this work, helps to improve the detection of these threatening seizure events by decreasing the level of expertise required from healthcare professionals while maintaining the same accuracy. It is shown that AI-assisted sonification can augment the medical professional to make decisions which are better than AI alone while improving the interpretability of the made decisions, which is a key requirement in the medical domain. The proposed algorithms and methodologies are validated on numerous datasets. The developed prototypes are implemented using cloud and Internet of Things technologies. It is shown that these technologies allow for an affordable, real-time analysis of heart and brain physiological signals with minimum training.

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