Julie Trueman

Julie has had varied, yet interconnected research interests. In earlier collaborations with JDDK Architects, they set out to identify, evaluate and disseminate good evidence-based practice in hospice design, presenting ‘Designing with care: Hospice design since 1980’ at Professional Practices in the Built Environment, Reading (2017), which in turn supported her involvement with the EPSRC-funded research project “Ongoingness” in which digital practices were explored that enable a continued sense of connection between someone bereaved and a person who has died. In collaboration with Open Lab, Newcastle University, Julie has also advised on the use of smart materials for designing interactive interiors in ‘Interioractive: Smart Materials in the Hands of Designers and Architects for Designing Interactive Interiors’.

Where possible Julie brings the research into the studio with innovative workshops, which more recently, has stimulated a firm interest in the pedagogy of learning environments. Having co-ran the Open Studio Newcastle Programme at the Bauhaus, Dessau in 2018, which explored proxemics of teaching and learning, this was further developed in a workshop at Virginia Tech, entitled the “Neue Sehen (New Vision) of Future Design Education”. Returning to the Bauhaus in 2020 to run a second Open Studio series of workshops, with delivery of a keynote lecture, has led to a collaboration with the research academy. The current project prompted by Julie’s sabbatical explores student anticipation and engagement when working online with iconic institutions, using digital ethnographic techniques as part of the evaluation process.