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Staff Profile

Professor Ruth Morrow

Head of School X and Professor of Biological Architecture

Background

Ruth is Head of School X (Newcastle University's Multi, Inter and Transdisciplinary School) and Professor of Biological Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.

Prior to joining Newcastle University she was Professor of Architecture at Queen's University Belfast (2009-2019) and Ulster University, Belfast (2003-2009). She also worked at Sheffield University, Dundee University and University College Dublin.

Her research, which is a combination of practice-based research and writing, encompasses both the material, the social and the ecological. It is driven by an inclusive, feminist ethos and uses tactics of creativity, collaboration and critical reflection. She has extensive experience in developing material ideas from concept through to commercialisation, resulting in international funding, design awards, exhibitions and citations, But she is also informed by working with critical users in critical contexts.

Ruth is also recognised as an innovative design teacher, winning awards for teaching excellence across her career. She writes on and teaches through live projects ie project based teaching with clients external to the university. She has designed and lead several courses of architecture at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is an experienced external examiner and external consultant to architecture courses in the UK, Ireland and Internationally. 

In her role at the Hub of Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) Ruth explores the emerging territories of Biological Architecture, contributing to this new area of knowledge and its application. She supported the development of the OME (HBBE's experimental building) and the development of large scale physical prototypes for the OME, through collaborations with other researchers, industry and end-users. She co-leads the HBBE Research theme: Responsible Interactions 

As Head of School X she oversees the development of its three founding units: Philosophy, Combined Honours and Researcher Education Development, alongside the development of new interdisciplinary courses and projects.


See Ruth's personal website for more information


Research

My research falls into three areas:

  1. Design-led Material Development: This is manifest in research projects that bring design thinking and ethos into the heart of material development. Textiles, Concrete, Waste Plastics, Composites and more recently Biotech-materials. This form of material development speaks to new forms of architectural and design practice; practice-based research; and technological cultures and ethics. In this work I have lead highly innovative material development that has led to patents, commissions, commercialisation and global sales. But it’s also radically altered how I view architectural practice and the materials that underpin it- so as a result I've also changed how I teach architectural design.
  2. Spaces of Rehearsal: This area of practice-based research stems from early work around disability, inclusive design and street-level pedagogy to working within communities in critical (post-conflict) contexts. It is manifest in my role as curatorial advisor to a Belfast-based arts organisation PS2 on long term projects with communities, in NI’s post-conflict context and in university-based live projects, working with local communities to consider new potentials and ways forward. The work is framed by pedagogical and improvisational theory.
  3. Inclusive Architecture Pedagogy: My pedagogy is informed by an inclusive feminist stance. It was formed by my involvement in two very early research projects- one on inclusive design and the other on gender in the work environment. During a relatively short but intense period at Sheffield University, School of Architecture, I led the development of an award-winning first year curriculum called Building Clouds Drifting Walls and I ran a Special Initiative Group of the Centre for Education in the Built Environment leading to the publication: ‘Building and Sustaining a Learning Environment for Inclusive Design’. The influence of both of these pedagogical ‘positions’ runs throughout the rest of my career. Questions that those positions raised- around the wider purpose of live projects and the teaching of technology – were resolved later in Street Society (a ten-year long annual teaching event) and the Postgraduate Design, Materials Studio ‘Without Precedent‘. This area of research will continue to be central to the work I do in the Hub of Biotechnology in the Built Environment, AND now School X! (no website yet....)

Publications