Valerie Mace

Biography

I am an educator and researcher at University of the Arts London bringing strategic experiential dimensions to design education and practice, prioritising the creation of meaningful and sustaining embodied experiences for emotional attachment and wellbeing. My work explores sensory ecologies between people (the sensing body) and environments, to contribute to a broad range of creative fields at the intersection of spatial design, storytelling, and human experience. Published in academic journals and conference proceedings, I am currently completing a PhD, a sensory study on the personalisation of experience and its contribution to emotional attachment to place.

I am also 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 have worked across a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including interior and spatial design, graphic design, spatial experience design, design for sustainable practice and social justice, service design, and user experience design. I also develop experiential learning activities for design with universities and organisations in the UK and internationally. I am passionate about teaching and learning in design education and the recipient of three Outstanding Teaching Awards, in 2013, 2016 and 2020.