Constructed Environment Research Network

Aysegul Ozlem Bayraktar Sari is a PhD candidate at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Her research broadly explores architectural design through computational and data-driven methods. She focuses on how emerging technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), graph-based design methods, and machine learning can support spatial analysis, design exploration, and performance evaluation in architectural processes. Aysegul has several years of professional experience as an architect and has published research on spatial analysis and architectural design. She also contributes to civic engagement projects linking architecture, sustainability, and education through interactive activities with primary school children in Cardiff.

Tuğçe Alp is a PhD candidate in Urban Planning at Middle East Technical University. Her doctoral research examines how water is framed, valued, and positioned within contemporary urban planning paradigms, focusing on the philosophical and ethical assumptions that shape human–water relationships in urban environments. She holds a BA in City and Regional Planning from METU and an MSc in International Architecture and Urban Design from Meiji University in Tokyo, where her work addressed landscape urbanism as a framework for water-resilient cities. Since 2018, she has been involved in design and research projects at the National Botanical Garden of Türkiye, with experience in site planning, planting design, and spatial interpretation through integrated landscape and urban design perspectives.

Emily Chang, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC moves through the world as both architect and observer, shaping spaces that quietly recalibrate how people feel in their environments. As founder of Local Parti Architecture and Passive Design, she approaches design as a living system—balancing light, air, and material with human rhythms and emotion. Her work is intimate, precise, and values-driven, rooted in sustainability and a deep respect for what already exists. She is equally drawn to structure and story, translating complex ideas into environments that feel effortless. Curious and exacting, she seeks alignment over performance, creating a life and practice that reflect clarity, intention, and a grounded sense of possibility.

Professor and Researcher for Architecture School at Universidad Anáhuac Querétaro. His professional development has revolved around three main aspects: design, consultancy and education in architecture, sharing the need of improvement by designing housings, diverse commercial buildings, and ephemeral modular structures alongside urban proposals.

He has participated in conferences in Mexico, Spain and other countries on sustainability and architectural heritage in urban environments. He is a member of the ACSA review committee and writes about cities in various international media outlets. He is also a member of the Citizen Council for Urban Planning of the Municipality of Querétaro

Dominican-born designer, educator, filmmaker, and practice-based PhD candidate at RMIT University. Her research, Osmotic Sensoria, explores how spatial design and embodied cognition can create neuroinclusive, multisensory learning environments. She integrates speculative design to reimagine equitable educational spaces. Gigi has taught at many design schools and currently teaches at Parsons School of Design, where she has worked for the past 20 years, and at Chavón School of Design (DR). She is the author of Second Language Through Design[ing] (2017) and creator of the Sprint-to-Pacing model for intensive learning, which is implemented in the Chavón Foundations curriculum. Her scholarly work spans publications and presentations at CGScholar, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design Studies, Spark Journal (UAL), ICDPCA, APA, FATE, MozFest, and more. She serves on the editorial board of CGScholar and as Vice President of Communications and Branding for Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE). As a filmmaker, she directed Madly Gifted (2013), a documentary on bipolar disorder and creative temperament, which was integrated into the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Psychiatry Clerkship Curriculum for medical education. In her design practice, Gigi leads Gigi Polo Lab, collaborating with mission-driven organizations on inclusive, wellness-oriented, and future-facing design. Her work advances models for equitable, immersive, and neurodiverse learning environments.

Andrea Mirón Ramírez holds a BA in Philosophy from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México and is currently pursuing an MA in Curatorial Studies at the University of Navarra. Her research is situated at the intersection of decolonial theory, aesthetics, and phenomenology, with a focus on spatial practices and the production of place within contemporary art and architecture. Her work examines space as a critical dispositif, attending to how exhibitions and architectural environments shape perception, subjectivity, and cultural narratives. She is particularly interested in curatorial and spatial strategies that challenge hegemonic epistemologies and foreground situated, embodied, and plural experiences of place. Her practice integrates research, curating, and cultural management, with an emphasis on accessibility, critical pedagogy, and socially engaged projects that activate space as a site of reflection and transformation.

Ms. Gloria Angela Mukova is a Lecturer and Head of the Department of Social Sciences at Kumi University – Uganda. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies and a Master’s in Urban Management and Development from Institute for Housing and Urban development Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since joining academia in August 2016, her teaching has been around community development, social service management, land and housing management, and her research focuses on urban housing, social policy, and planning. She is committed to advancing applied knowledge and fostering critical discourse within the social sciences, drawing from both her academic expertise and growing practical experience in the field.

She is an architect from the Instituto Tecnológico de Campeche, with a Master’s degree in Public Space Management from the Universidad Modelo de Mérida. She is currently a PhD candidate in Habitat Sciences in an interinstitutional program. She has professional experience in public management and urban planning, working in territorial analysis, environmental management, and public space projects. She has served as a lecturer and as Deputy Director of Projects and Urban Image for the Municipality of Campeche. She has participated as a speaker in academic forums and won the Kybernus National Competition with the program Let’s Walk Safely. She is currently developing the research project Caring in Motion in San Francisco de Campeche.

Tamara Nasr graduated from the Lebanese American University with a Bachelor of Architecture. In recognition of her research work, high academic standard and leadership during her undergraduate studies, she received the Young Researcher Award and the President’s Award from her university. She then pursued a post-professional M.S. in Architecture with a certificate in Urban Design from the University of Cincinnati as a Fulbright Scholar. Her research investigates how urban form and its appropriations participate in the construction of identity, resistance, and belonging, and has been published in journals such as Urban Planning.

Paniz Mousavi Samimi is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary with over a decade of research experience. Her work explores restorative housing principles for marginalized children with an emphasis on participatory and trauma-informed care approaches, bridging the fields of architecture, psychology, and social work. At the heart of her work is the recognition that environmental design is not only an aesthetic pursuit, but a public health imperative–most urgent for children, whose early environments shape their lifelong trajectories. Paniz is also a co-founder of the Sustainable Futures Lab and a senior researcher in the national partnership project Quality in Canada’s Built Environment.