Dr Valerie Mace

Biography

Valerie's work explores the interrelationship between the sensing body and its environment 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 to cultivate people’s ability to form emotional connections to place in the public interior.

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 an active member of the Cumulus Design for Placemaking working group, contributing to international conversations around design and place.