Programme Heads:

Doreen Bernath is an architect and a theorist trained at the University of Cambridge and the Architectural Association (AA). She is currently Executive Editor of The Journal of Architecture, trustee of the Society of Architectural Historian Great Britain, AA Dip 22 ‘Draw with Me’ Unit Master, and a co-founder of research collectives ThisThingCalledTheory and Office at Sea. In parallel to teaching widely at different institutions, she teaches at the AA across PhD and postgraduate programmes and her publications have appeared internationally. She was a founding-director of the interdisciplinary platform DEZACT and AAVS Uncommon Walks ‘Pedestric Radicals’, as well as co-leader of MArch research and design studio Cinematic Commons at Leeds School of Architecture. She has published widely and teaches, in parallel to different institutions, in the AA PhD and postgraduate programmes.

Teresa Stoppani is Professor of Architecture and Director of Architecture and Interior Design at Norwich University of the Arts. An architect and architectural theorist, Teresa studied Architecture at the IUAV University of Venice and received a PhD in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Florence. She has taught at the IUAV, the University of Greenwich, UT Sydney, and Leeds Beckett University where she was the Head of the School of Architecture. She is a member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) Steering Group, an editor of the RIBA’s Journal of Architecture, and co-founder of the international research collective ThisThingCalledTheory, for which she has co-edited the book This Thing Called Theory. Her work focuses on the relationship between architecture theory and the design process, and on the influence of other spatial and critical practices on the specifically architectural.

K.B. Izac Tsai is a designer, architect, artist, researcher, historian, theorist, and radio program producer and presenter. He completed his RIBA Part I and II at the Architectural Association (AA) and holds a Bachelor's in Mass Communications and a Master's in Marketing from institutions in Canada and the United States. His PhD research at the AA focuses on the economic and maritime history of cities in the Far East and Southeast Asia. He has been shortlisted in international design competitions and has been invited to present his work at the London School of Economics, The Architectural Association,Norwich University of the Arts, and the University of Denver. He has taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture,Leeds School of Architecture and Norwich University of the Arts. Currently, he is developing a multidisciplinary platform integrating art, architecture, design, research, and media to foster cross-disciplinary experimentation. He is the founder of architectural design studio The Embassy Büró in London and Atelier KBITA in Taipei, as well as the co-founder of the global research program Urbanity From The Ocean and the consultancy firm Office At Sea.

Teaching team and specialists:

YU-SEN CHOU is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Feng Chia University. He is both an architect and a scholar of architectural history. He obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Architecture from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, and later earned his Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Edinburgh. He has extensive experience in both academia and practice, having participated in numerous architectural projects and public art initiatives. As a scholar, his research focuses on architectural theory and the architectural culture of Taiwan. In his teaching, he is dedicated to integrating architectural education with practical application.

LI-TING CHEN is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Tunghai University, and Adjunct Lecturer at Feng Chia Univeristy and Da-Yeh University. She is also the director of design studio L.A. Lab. She is a designer, an architect, and an educator. She finished her Bachelor in architecture degree at National Taipei University of Technology and Master of Urban vision and Architectural Design at Domus Academy in Milan. She has previously worked at JJP Architects & Planner and T.DLee Architect offices.

IULIANA GAVRIL is a Senior Lecturer at the Norwich University of the Arts, where she has been the coordinator for Cultural Context, and the champion of the Created and Contested Territories research group (2020-2023). Trained as an architect in Romania, an architectural historian and theorist in the Netherlands and the UK, and an architectural anthropologist in the UK, Iuliana is also a keen urban and arborist sketcher; as a visual artist, her work was shown internationally in group exhibitions in the UK, Italy, Greece, Romania, and the USA.Her research interests include architectural writing and imagination, anthropologies of making, and sacred architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity. For her PhD, Iuliana worked on the sixth-century Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and in a short post-doc, she extended the research to the perception of Hagia Sophia in 19th-century England and its architectural drawings in the RIBA Collection of Drawings. She has been the general editor of the journal Architectural Histories (2014-2018) and a Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan (2018).

CHINGYU CHANG is a Taiwanese artist specialising in printmaking and contemporary visual culture. She is also an educator from the Department of Visual Arts, National Chiayi University in Taiwan. Her research emphasises visual storytelling and perceptual narrative studies, exploring the intersection of human emotions and cultural complexities through visual narratives. Chang’s curatorial projects and exhibitions, showcased internationally, demonstrate her commitment to advancing contemporary visual culture studies while integrating theoretical insights into narrative structures with innovative art practices.

FANG-LONG SHIH is an anthropologist, historian, and theorist with a PhD from the University of London, jointly supervised by LSE and SOAS. She is a Research Fellow at LSE, specializing in Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, and Co-Director of the LSE Taiwan Research Programme. Dr. Shih has taught courses in the UK, Czech Republic, and Taiwan on topics ranging from Taiwan studies to Chinese religions. She serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Chinese Studies and the Board of Advisors for the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, D.C. Her work is widely published in academic journals, and she is a regular contributor to major media outlets.

ELENI SOUSONI is the director and co-founder of Yellow Cloud Studio, an award winning, design-led architecture practice based in London. Their work has been published in multiple UK and international platforms and has received recognition in a selection of awards. She is also a designer, researcher and an academic. She completed her studies in the UK and has worked in a diverse selection of practices before setting up the studio in 2013. She has been a lecturer in architecture at Norwich University of the Arts since 2022, teaching Design Studio with a focus on concept development that prioritises spatial experience. Her academic research on immersive technologies, titled “Embodied Vision”, was presented by the studio at AHRA’s Body Matters conference in 2024. She is currently working on the regeneration of East London’s Tram Depot and is also developing REthink Tank, a platform for theoretical explorations with a focus on the political role of architecture.

ROMANOS TSOMOS is an architect, director, and co-founder of Yellow Cloud Studio, a design-led practice based in London since 2013. Under his co-leadership, the studio has gained recognition through multiple awards and international publications, reflecting his research-driven approach and commitment to innovative, sustainable design. Romanos brings over a decade of international professional experience in Germany, Spain, and Greece, informing a broad cultural and technical understanding of architecture. He holds a Diploma in Architecture from RWTH Aachen and a Master’s in Bioclimatic Architecture & Sustainability from UPC Barcelona. Fluent in five languages, he thrives in global academic settings. Since 2023, he has lectured at Norwich University of the Arts, leading the Year 3 Technology & Environment module. His teaching bridges architectural concepts with material performance and ecological strategies. Romanos is passionate about ecological materiality, precise detailing, and advancing sustainable design through both practice and education.

YOLANDA Y. LIOU is a Taiwan-born visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker based in London. Working across analogue film, digital media, and collage, her practice explores the human form, mental wellbeing, and Asian identity through textured, narrative-rich images. Known for her self-developed analogue techniques and embrace of imperfection, her work challenges conventional ideals of beauty and representation. In 2020, she received third prize in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for her portrait of body-positivity advocate Enam Ewura Adjoa Asiama. Yolanda’s photographs and films have been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery, and featured in Vogue, i-D, Dazed, and Nowness. Her first monograph, Thank You For Playing With Me, was launched at The Photographers’ Gallery in 2024, showcasing portraits of sisterhood, transformation, and radical self-acceptance. Through her deeply personal yet socially attuned work, Yolanda continues to create nuanced visual dialogues around identity, vulnerability, and contemporary femininity.

TIM GRABHAM (aka iloobia) is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist whose independent practice spans over 30 years. His work blends experimental film, animation, photography, and installation, often embracing handmade, analogue, and unconventional techniques. He is known for repurposing obsolete media formats and decaying celluloid, exploring themes of memory, materiality, and transformation. Grabham’s practice also bridges art and science, visualising concepts such as fungal intelligence, bio-computing, and interspecies communication. His films have been exhibited internationally in cinemas, festivals, galleries, and on television. He co-directed the acclaimed feature documentaries KanZeOn (2011) and The Creeping Garden (2014), the latter winning multiple international awards. His solo directorial debut, Ghost Amber (2021), merges fiction and documentary to create a meditative hybrid form. His short Films To Break Projectors (2016) received Best of British Animation at Encounters Festival. A selection of his work is available at www.iloobia.com.

SHIAU-YUN LU is the Director-General of the Ocean Conservation Administration, and Professor from the Department of Marine Environment and Engineering at National Sun Yat-sen University. She received her doctoral degree at the Harvard University School of Design. Her expertise includes marine policy, ocean and coastal management, green port cities, wetland conservation, marine spatial planning, and environmental education. With training as a landscape architect from MLA, University of Pennsylvania, she has applied spatial analytical tools and design concepts in environmental planning, especially in the area of coastal zone planning. The team she led for the “Aogu Wetland & Forest Park Master Plan” received the Award for Excellence in the Analysis and Planning category of the 2011 ASLA professional awards.

CHANG HUI-CHUN is the former CEO of Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation (KOEF) for the past six years, and became director of KOEF in 2023.Her mission is to organise the organisation of the Foundation and develop project issues such as marine debris, captivity, fishery culture, coastal development, etc. to address the marine public issues in Taiwan. Hui-Chun has been a member of the organisation since 2005. She specialises in marine cultural records and oral history surveys in fishing villages. She is also a writer for marine literature, publishing four works, "Kuroshio Current" ,"Taiwan is not a lonely existence"," Beyond the blue: Kuroshio’s voyage”, and ” Feminine mountains and seas”. Hui-Chun also served as a whale watching docent since 2006, working with the whale watching industry to promote marine environmental education and basic investigations. She is currently a writer, with five books of essays and writings on nature .