Dr Valerie Mace

Biography

Valerie's work enquires into the interrelationship between the sensing body and environments to develop a design understanding of how man-made and natural sensory settings can foster connections and enhance wellbeing. She calls this approach ‘Sensory Ecologies’. Her PhD contributed a framework for sensory practices that cultivate people’s ability to form emotional connections to place in the public realm. While the quality of human experience remains a vital concern, she is also extending her scope towards more-than-human contexts, building on her existing research to examine how we might better cohabit with nature in urban public environments.

She is passionate about design education and she has had the privilege of teaching across disciplines, from interior and spatial design to experiential, interaction and UX design. As a Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts London and Senior Fellow of Advance HE, she is recognised for her ongoing commitment to excellence in teaching and academic leadership. Over the years, she has helped shape several innovative design programmes and she has been honoured with three UAL Outstanding Teaching Awards for her contributions to learning and teaching.

She also leads cross-institutional projects, including a partnership with Malta’s National Art Museum where UAL students created site-specific responses to climate change, and a sensory study in a dementia care setting in Milan that introduced MA Interior Design students at Politecnico di Milano to empathy-led design. She is a member of the Space and Place research hub at London College of Communication and of the Cumulus Association Design for Placemaking working group, actively engaging with local and international collaborations on design and place.

Valérie is open to Doctoral supervision on the following topics: experience design, sensory practices, placemaking.