Ross McCarthy

Ross McCarthy is an architect and educator from Ireland with over a decade of experience working in Germany, Ireland, and the United States. He specializes in design-build programs that empower students to connect design theory with hands-on practice. Ross developed the Humane Architecture in the Arizona Borderlands program, where USF students collaborated with a non-profit to design and build water stations for migrants in the Sonoran Desert. This program highlights equitable design, Indigenous water management practices, and climate-responsive solutions.

In his work with rural, post-disaster communities, Ross has collaborated with Indigenous populations to anchor cultural practices in place through architecture. His research, Youth-Led Rebuild: Anchoring Indigenous Voices and Cultural Resilience in Post-Disaster Community Recovery, explores how youth-driven architecture fosters sustainable redevelopment and cultural preservation.

Ross has taught architecture history, design studio and CAD courses at multiple institutions, emphasizing the intersection of cultural identity, technical skills, and community engagement in his teaching.

• Architecture history
• Humanitarian design-build programs

• Anchoring indigenous culture through architecture
• Resilient post-disaster rural community redevelopment

• Passive House Institute PHIUS, CPHC, 2017
• Technical University Dublin, BArch, 2015

• Adjunct Professor in Architecture History, College of Marin
• Architecture Program Director, The San Francisco Waldorf High School
• Design-Build Program Director, KidMob
• Founder of HedgeGrow Learning Design-Build Education

• Youth-Led Rebuild: Anchoring Indigenous Voices and Cultural Resilience — A research dissertation examining how empowering local youth ownership through architecture fosters successful long-term post-disaster rural redevelopment and anchors Indigenous cultural traditions in collaboration with Indigenous voices.
• The Revivalist Architecture of 20th Century National Schools – Architectural Research, Technical University Dublin (2019) — A dissertation exploring the architecture of 20th century Irish National Schools and how their vernacular architecture used sustainable building solutions and reflected the identity of the Irish Free State.
• Wellbeing Anchored in Place - BArch Thesis, Dublin School of Architecture (2015) — An examination of wellbeing in the built environment researching how architecture can impact emotional, social and physical wellbeing by examining how architecture relates to place.