I am an educator and researcher at University of the Arts London exploring sensory ecologies between people and environments, prioritising the creation of meaningful and sustaining embodied experiences. I contribute to a broad range of creative fields at the intersection of sensory-emotional design, storytelling, human-centred and more-than-human experience. I regularly contribute to conferences with published articles in proceedings, academic journals, and a chapter in Interior Futures. I am also completing a PhD, a sensory study on the contribution of the personalisation of experience to emotional attachment to place in the public realm.
I am passionate about teaching and learning and the recipient of three Outstanding Teaching Awards, in 2013, 2016 and 2020. I am a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy with leadership experience in the development and management of design programmes, shaping creative disciplines into future facing innovative curricula.I work on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across disciplines ranging from interior and spatial design to service design and user experience design. I am a member of the Design for Placemaking research group at Politecnico di Milano and of the Space and Place research group at London College of Communication.
I also develop collaborations with universities and organisations, including a project with Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti in Malta (Malta National community art museum) published by Universities UK International, and a study with Politecnico di Milano and Piazza Grace, an integrated day care centre for people with Dementia in Milan, Italy. This project was published in the LearnXDesign 2023, Futures of Design Education conference proceedings.
This blog is a repository of projects, collaborations, contributions to conferences, seminars, and publications centred on the primacy of sensing in environmental experience.