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Lizzie Wynn   PhD Cardiff

Mrs Lizzie Wynn

(she/they)

PhD Cardiff

Research student

Welsh School of Architecture

Overview

I have been working with natural and local materials since 1997, on my own projects and as a consultant, designer and builder, in Wales and in Spain. Originally a photographer, this led to a focus on creative functional structures, after a long process of changing my own living environment. I explored how sites can provide choices in materials for structures, which can reduce the carbon footprint of a build substantially, potentially to zero. There are many clues in vernacular buildings, waste streams and in the ground beneath our feet. I have developed a reputation for creating structures from whatever is to hand and have a wealth of eclectic experience, that I use to unpick social and practical problems. 

I began 'Salad Workers in Spain' in 2014, a social justice project that built compost toilets and edible gardens with volunteers in migrant camps in Almería, Spain. Now, resettled in Wales, I co-founded and project manage 'Incredible Edible Porthmadog' (since 2016) and teach in local and waste materials. I have articles published in Spain and in the UK on sustainable building methods and agriculture in Almería.

BA (Hons) Photography 1990. Photographer 1992 - 2016

Workshop leader and design/build projects 2009 - present

MSc Sustainability and Adaptation in the Built Environment 2018

Visiting lecturer and short course leader at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales 2015-19

Clayfest 2018 workshop leader

Mentor - Renew Wales/EGIN 2019 - present

Research

My MSc research focused on local resources for sustainable materials and food industry migrant stories/routes to Spain from Western Africa.

Papers presented at;

Hugo Conference on Environment, Migration, Politics in Liege, Belgium, 2017

Sustainable Design in the Built Environment Conference, London, 2018

Futurebuild, London, 2019

Thesis

Waste as a construction material; reuse of single-use plastic and tyres, with earth

Funding sources

Self-funded

Supervisors

Vicki Stevenson

Vicki Stevenson

Reader, Course Director for MSc Environmental Design of Buildings, Director of Postgraduate Research

Christopher Whitman

Christopher Whitman

Director of Impact