Ms Aoife Donnelly

Forming the core of my role at KSA, I am deeply invested in developing teaching and learning practice with a particular interest in radical pedagogies, within art and architectural education and more broadly.

Recently achieving Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, this qualification acknowledges my established and sustained leadership role in the Dept. Management team and commitment to developing and delivering high quality design pedagogy. This has included  a key role in developing new BA & M.Arch courses, through a process analogous to building design, accredited in 2022/23 within the University and by the PRSB bodies, ARB & RIBA.

My teaching and learning approach seeks to activate learners, including through models such as dialogic teaching, flipped classroom, backwards learning, making the learning environment a space of exchange, promoting active listening and critical thinking, spiralled and scaffolded learning. 

At M.Arch we facilitate personalisation of learning and a high degree of agency through the students self-selection of Design Units & essay/ dissertation topics. The approach mirrors practice, validating different forms of primary research/ modalities of writing. Ethics and professional practice questions are creatively framed through the lens of the Design Unit, linked to positive employability/ graduate outcomes, and intended to prepare the student for transition into practice. 

Developing and delivering our courses includes extensive consultation with industry and student bodies, partnering with Inclusive Curriculum Consultants, engaging with the forefront of contemporary issues for the discipline around social and economic inclusivity, climate justice and de-colonising the canon and curriculum. I currently represent Faculty on a working group looking at the transition period into and through 3rd level and young people's educational journey, engaging issues around inclusivity, belonging, progression and attainment.

Qualifications and expertise

• SFHEA Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
• M.Arch Course Leader
• Design Unit Leader
• M.Arch Module Leader
• M.Arch Designate Leader
• Year Leader

Undergraduate courses taught

• Architecture BA (Hons)

Postgraduate courses taught

• Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) MArch

My research focuses on the production of a humane, climatically responsive and situated architecture, drawing on research into emergent contemporary vernacular languages of architecture, material & tectonic cultures, radical pedagogies, and participatory practices. One strand of ongoing research is Play and Publi/city, an interrogation of the potential for play in the city. 

Thinking about place, situation, questions of accessibility and equity around the built environment has been a key theme in my work to date, through the lens of my practice as it has evolved, and the increasing University role. As a keen cyclist and promoter of a green and car free city, I have loved involvement in various capacities in the development of green, blue and cycle networks, from the A12 underpass, bridge and towpath and Bow Masterplan work to the Greenway, work along the DLR and at Gallions with A&S, play streets and more recently the East London Waterworks Park.

I have been working and researching around these themes in an effort to contribute to a more inclusive, equitable, dynamic and pleasurable built environment. In the context of London, this holds so much importance in underpinning a sense of belonging for the broad range of diverse communities who co-exist here, offering a space where cultural histories and backgrounds can be exchanged, validated and activated, augmenting the urban realm, fostering strong and galvanized communities.

I have been involved in research around young people, their role in growing the city, capacity for agency over the built environment and how the disciplines of architecture and urbanism might help foster this sense of ownership and citizenship, contributing positively to the rich and diverse tapestry of the city. I held a Whitechapel Gallery residency in 2019, delivering a series of making workshops within an East London primary school, culminating in creating an exhibition and critical symposium event at the Gallery. This lead to involvement with Nottingham Contemporary Bauhaus centenary Architectures of Education conference and a publication with E-Flux on the work of Architects David and Mary Medd.

Research projects include: 

MBANG'OMBE, the reimagining of a Safer Motherhood site in rural Malawi with NGO African Vision, focussed on the creation of a humane built environment situated within a permaculture educational landscape, the project exploits natural building & local vernacular techniques.

OPEN FRAME, a pop-up urban-room in collaboration with RBK and local stakeholder groups, part of ongoing questioning of urban and design politics and playful engagement with the city.

‘NEW RADICALS', presentations at Architecture Fringe Festival and AMPS Glasgow on the topic of radical design pedagogies.

'A SEAT AT THE TABLE', part of a Whitechapel Gallery residency, a series of collaborative workshops with primary school children engaging with the theme of agency through making, supporting public participation in shaping the city. 

This lead to a symposium/ exhibition of project outputs with artist Nils Norman, dancer/ choreographer Adesola Akinleye, academic/ writer Catherine Burke, researcher Sol Perez Martinez, with a publication pending.                                                                                            

Bauhaus Centenary programme presentation at Nottingham Contemporary 'Architectures of Education' conference, authoring a subsequent E-FLUX publication titled the 'THE DEMOCRATIC DESIGN OF DAVID AND MARY MEDD'.

'CROYDON URBAN ROOM', collaboration with Croydon Placemaking Team. Drawing on the model developed by Colin Ward, an exhibition capturing the voices of young people in Croydon within the NEET bracket through a series of interviews, regarding proposed large scale urban development.

'BEHIND THE FAÇADE' revisiting London Mayors Regeneration High Street Fund. Following on from a series of executed projects in three London Boroughs, a study focused on the moment regeneration schemes meet the independent structures of the high street, reflecting on delivery strategies, project outputs and explored personal stories surrounding the relationship between funders, designers and traders.

Qualifications and expertise

• Registered Architect ARB UK/ formerly RIAI Registered Architect Ireland
• PG Dip Arch
• BA hons Arch