Dr Kate Carter

Job title:

Senior Lecturer, Architecture

K.Carter@ed.ac.uk
+44 (0)131 650 2323

Office:

Minto House

Research Output:

Edinburgh Research Explorer link

Biography

Dr Kate Carter is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Technology and Environment joining ESALA in 2011. She teaches in the Masters and Undergraduate Architecture programmes.

An early interest in climate responsive architecture has heavily influenced her research. She has led EPSRC and Government funded research in low energy design and the understanding of sustainability. Her interests include sustainable architecture, low carbon construction, and building and energy information modelling.

Kate qualified as an architect while working in practice after studying at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. She was awarded the Richard Lay Fellowship in 2001 for her PhD in sustainability and social housing at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Teaching

Kate teaches on the Masters and Undergraduate Architecture Programmes with a focus on technology, environment and sustainability. She is Course Organiser for Architectural Technology Research, guiding students to explore innovative materials, environment and processes that contribute to reducing the Climate Emergency. She also leads the Design Project for the MSc in Advanced Sustainable Design.

Kate contributes to Professional Practice courses and the integration of technology in the design studios. She lectures on Procurement and Building Information Management and takes part in the ‘Contract Game’ with Masters students each year.

Kate is External Examiner at Glasgow University for the Joint Architecture and Engineering degree with GSA. She is also a Board Member of APEAS (Architects Professional Examination Authority Scotland).

Research

Dr Carter has led and co-led a number of funded research projects around sustainable and low carbon approaches in Architecture.

She jointly led the ‘Present Voices Future Lives’ exhibition and tour for Architecture Design Scotland and the Scottish Government to support the Housing to 2040 Vision. Films made as part of this project were selected for the RSA Annual Exhibition. The exhibition was shown at the Lighthouse in Glasgow, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture.

Kate does research with the Social Housing sector and has undertaken projects with Wheatley Group, SFHA and the Construction Innovation Centre, CS-IC.

Kate She was funded by GCRF in 2020 to work with ArBolivia, a social enterprise afforestation programme, to explore local use of the timber for buildings in Bolivia. She is a member of the Brettstapel Network in Scotland exploring the use of dowel-laminated timber in buildings.

Other research work includes EPSRC funded projects:

‘Learning Energy Systems’, involving Architecture, Informatics, Digital Design and Social Science in a project exploring innovative HCI (human computer interaction) approaches to managing energy use in school buildings.
‘Enhance’ working with the City of Edinburgh Council and the University of Edinburgh to explore ways that large organisations engage people with energy use in their buildings.
‘concrete2cookers’ a public engagement project, to help children understand how carbon emissions are linked to their school buildings, creating an online game which is available for use in schools across the UK. This project was launched at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 2009.

In 2012 Kate chaired the Review of Energy Standards for buildings on behalf of the Scottish Government and was a member of the reconvened Sullivan Panel, ‘A Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland’ in 2013.