My research is strongly cross-disciplinary, bringing new insight to problems of other specialisms by combining engineering analysis, conservation theory and project-based enquiry approaches from my experience in an Architecture teaching environment. My main tools are structural analysis (experimental and numerical), architectural analysis through modelling, plus the assessment of historical and cultural evolution processes.
The study of the design, technology and stability of iron-age brochs in northern Scotland is a pioneering work, developed through models of various scales to understand global or local strength and stability or to test reconstruction and architectural hypotheses (proportions, internal layout, roof forms.
A more technical approach drives my long-standing research into the technology of medieval vaulting systems. My work focuses on the exploration of the construction characteristics and structural design of simple stone vaults in Scottish churches from the late medieval period until the early 18th century (Holyrood, Melrose, Dirleton, Dunglass, Seton) and the evolution of the rib vault (in the main vaults of Durham and Lincoln cathedrals). The study of the transfer of such technologies to Greece (the case of Saint Sophia in Andravida) reveals the potential of systems to be adapted in a culturally alien territory.
Sometimes no new knowledge is required except for the systematic dissemination of existing good practice, as in the case of neoclassical Georgian stonework in Edinburgh. Training models of critical stonework systems were created (chimney, window surround, external staircase) to disseminate the complexity of the pathology and the range of modern solutions that can be applied, based on experience already acquired.
