An architecture graduate of Dundee and Strathclyde Universities, Prof. Sharpe has both practice and research experience in a number of fields, including user participation, environmental design and sustainability. His Ph.D. examined the nature of community architecture and design participation and looked in detail at the potential for CAD for participatory design projects. After this he was able to apply and develop this research in practice whilst working as an architect for the Technical Services Agency, a tenant managed Community Technical Aid Centre, where he worked on a variety of housing and other design and rehabilitation project, and developed further expertise in energy related technical issues. Prof. Sharpe has both practice and research experience in a number of fields, including user participation, environmental and low energy design and sustainability.
Prof. Sharpe is a senior academic at the Mackintosh School of Architecture (MSA) at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), holding several senior posts, including Professor of Environmental Architecture, Head of Architectural Technology, Senior Researcher at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and Director of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU). MEARU is now internationally recognised with a very unique identity, bridging the gap between science-based research, architectural design, and building users. It has established expertise that goes beyond energy use to include design, health and wellbeing. The unit has conducted over £4m of research projects. This worked develop expertise in monitoring environmental conditions in homes which led on to a range of Building Performance Evaluation projects, funded by Innovate UK as part of the £8m 4-year BPE program for which he was an expert evaluator. He is currently the PI for an AHRC funded project (part of the Anti-Microbial Resistance RCUK initiative) entitled ‘Influence of Housing Ventilation on the Prevalence of Anti-Microbial Resistant Bacteria’. He chairs the NHBC Scotland Technical Committee, is co-chair of the Ventilation panel for the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings, and has recently been appointed as a topic expert to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Public Health Committee on Indoor Air Quality.