Our staff
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Dr Mersha Aftab
MA Design Management Course Director
Dr. Mersha Aftab is a senior lecturer in Design Management and the course director for postgraduate design management courses at Birmingham City University. Before joining the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Media in September 2019, she was a Senior Lecturer in Innovation at the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences,...
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Dr Matthew Armitt
Lecturer in Architecture
Matthew’s research is on the period of the 1920s and 1930s on Soviet Architecture, Theory, and Architectural Teaching. Through his past research, Matthew has explored the revolutionary architectural teaching methods of the Russian Architecture School VKhUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Studios) through a discipline of...
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Kristine Biteniece
Technician for Hard Materials
For Kristine, since she can remember she has always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together. Her current passion is upcycling any lighting objects that she can find, while being a nature lover explains the 44 plants in her flat. Kristine is not a fan of public transport so cycles as much as possible, and if...
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Dr Jemma Browne
School Coordinator, Cultural Context, History & Theory
Jemma teaches history and theory of Architecture and Design and coordinates the overall delivery and development of this strand of all the courses in the School, as well as contributing to the development of the School research environment and supervising PhD students. Jemma completed her Doctoral research Spatial...
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Katriona Byrne
Course Director MA Conservation of the Historic Environment
Katriona's BA in History of Art led her to work on the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Dublin and on the National Inventory of Ireland. The Historic Heart of Dublin European project led to a postgraduate Diploma in Architectural Inventorying and Recording. Katriona then worked for about 10 years as a local authority...
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Oliver Chapman
Deputy Leader Level 4 Architecture, Lecturer in Architecture
Oliver enjoys opportunities to explore design and learning within the intense learning and testing environments of the professional and academic studio, and he strongly believe that maintaining a connection between the architecture profession and a wider discourse on architecture, design and craft is vital for practitioners to...
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Natalie Cole
BA Product and Furniture Design lecturer
Natalie is a Lecturer on the BA (hons) Product and Furniture Design programme. She currently teaches Level 4 students, as well as being the Link Tutor for Birmingham City University International College. Prior to joining the University, Natalie managed and curated the craft programme for Wolverhampton Arts and...
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Alessandro Columbano FHEA, BArch, MA, BA (Hons)
Senior Lecturer, Enterprise Coordinator, STEAMhouse Academic
Alessandro is a Senior Lecturer at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. He also co-established and leads the Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB) a teaching intiative and organisation within the school that integrates teaching with practice through live projects, staff research/design and external consultancy. ...
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Dr Sandra Costa
Course Director MA Landscape Architecture
Sandra is a lecturer and researcher in landscape architecture and design with diversified experience encompassing teaching, research and professional practice. She has lectured in the UK and Portugal in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Her teaching explores current issues and challenges faced by landscapes and the...
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Michael Dring
Programme Director, MArch Architecture
Mike Dring is an architect, senior lecturer, MArch programme director and researcher at the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. He brings seven years of professional practice to his role with a track record of delivering award winning projects. He is involved in a number of emergent and established research projects...