Working at the intersection of humanities and design, my research interests are in the area of critical practices and architectural culture: spatial, material and inhabitive imaginations; drawing, visual media and architectural education; sites and modes of constructing practices of architecture that impact on cities and culture.

Visual Research Methods in Architecture (2021, co-edited with Igea Troiani) explores how drawing, photography, film and mixed-modes of research are practiced for architectural knowledge. Field/Work, the 6th Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) International Conference held in Edinburgh (2009) and associated publications Architecture and Field/Work (Routledge, 2011), Architectural Research Quarterly Vol 15.4 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) established vocabularies, relational practices and situated cases of conceptual shifts between site and field. 

As co- Executive Editor (2012-2023) of the international award-winning journal Architecture and Culture (CELJ Best New Journal Award 2014), I have contributed to Issue themes, ‘Discipline’, ‘Disciplinary Practices’, 'Spaces of Tolerance', which explore Architecture's interdisciplinary formations and this journal as a space of 'new architectural criticism'. 

The design-research outputs of the Saltcities studios which I led as part of the Edinburgh Master of Architecture programme (2006-2014) have been internationally exhibited. Studio inquiries pursue connections between research, pedagogy and design. Critical spatial and sonic attentiveness, site recording, enviromental assymmetries, cultures of dwelling and alteration, and the literal and metaphoric unsure or moving ground of the city are concerns informing recent studios, Building-in-time (2019), At home (2021), Soundings (2022), The Empty Space (2022-23). 

I co-founded ZONE architects with David Jamieson in 2002, working from our purpose-designed studio in Granton. My practice contribution includes invited urban projects and competitions, brief shaping, critical review, and project consolidation/ dissemination. Edinburgh: subterranean city was part of an installation exhibition at the Hidden Door Art Festival 2014, and na[0728] New Architectures for World Heritage, 2013, reflected on 10 years of ZONE practice output and sites in the context of the World Heritage Site of Edinburgh. Specialising in new houses, amenities and planned landscapes in sensitive contexts, the practice was awarded 2 Saltire Housing Design Awards in 2023.

Current projects:

- Voices of Experience: The Women Making Modern Scotland (2016-). A collaborative project, using oral history, conversation and creative practice in a framework of feminist archive construction, to document and communicate overloked contributions to the built environment.

VoE Datashare 

- Women Make Cities (2021-2023) A research network funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh that aims to augment the documentary approach to the role of women - in fields such as photography, art practice, literature, architecture, engineering and planning -  exploring how ‘women make cities’ in Scotland.

WMC Website

-Minimally Disruptive Urbanism (2022-24) A collaborative project working with colleagues from the University of Sydney and Cornell University, funded by University of Sydney/ University of Edinburgh  PCA Award and University of Edinburgh Global Strategic Collaboration Award.

I currently co-lead the CAHSS Research Themes Future Cities.