Mhairi McVicar
Lecturer (part time wednesday-Friday)

Research Group: Architectural History and Theory Group

E-Mail: McVicarM@cardiff.ac.uk

Postal Address:
Welsh School of Architecture
Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff
CF10 3NB

Telephone: 029 20874634
Fax: 029 20874926

Responsibilities
Second Year Chair (BSc)
Contributor to Architectural Technology 2
Dissertation Supervisor (March)
Higher degree supervisor (MPhil)
WSA Disability Contact

I joined WSA as a Lecturer in 2006, following practice in a London based architectural office which focused on affordable housing. I’d previously practiced as an architect in Chicago, Illinois, and taught as an adjunct assistant professor at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). I am licensed as an architect in the State of Illinois, USA.

Research Interests
Precision
My PhD research investigates the pursuit and consequences of precision in architectural practice. Examining relationships between concept and construction, I highlight the use of precision to predict and control the process of constructing architecture. My current research collects written, drawn, oral, and built evidence associated with three constructed architectural details. By reinterpreting the technical instructions in construction drawings and specifications as poetic and cultural statements, this research analyses what a constructed detail may reveal about contemporary architectural practice.

Self build and practice
I am a director in Collaborative Design Studio, http://www.cdstudio.co.uk, which recently completed the 2008 Westray Heritage Centre Annex, and the self-build of a private longhouse residence in the Orkney Islands.

Workshops
My research interests in constructing architecture extended to two workshops which included ‘live’ projects and clients: the construction of drystone ‘tangle walls’ and a ‘boat noust’ for the landscaping of the Westray Heritage Centre in Orkney during a one-week workshop in September 2007, and a vertical studio run with LLanfyllin Workshouse, in collaboration with Julie Gwilliam.

Other Activites
Co Editor (with Allison Dutoit) of made, the Journal of the Welsh School of Architecture

Committee member of Design Circle RSAW South: lead organizer of Reflecting Wales, an exhibition of innovative, conceptual and built work in Wales, held in the Senedd in October 2008: http://www.designcirclersawsouth.co.uk/reflectingwales/