Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

Our Research

Our staff’s major areas of research and scholarly activity on the following areas:

  • Adaptive Reuse
  • Age-friendly design (housing and health and social care)
  • Architectural materialism's
  • Architecture, Cities and the Knowledge Economy
  • Community resilience
  • Design Ecology
  • Design for people living with Dementia
  • Digital manufacturing
  • Environmental design
  • German Expressionism and the early Bauhaus
  • Healthcare Resilience
  • History of Architecture
  • Innovative and smart materials
  • Institutions and the City
  • Material computation
  • Modern and Postmodern theories of architecture and urbanisation. 
  • Parametric design
  • Pedagogy and Space
  • Post minimalist American Art
  • Quality of Life
  • Smart Cities
  • Speculative design
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Sustainable Communities
  • Urban Resilience

Staff have been distinguished with awards for excellence as outstanding papers, namely:

  • Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2017 as Outstanding Paper: Pantzartzis E, Price ADF, Pascale F., (2016). A built environment response to the rising costs of dementia, Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 21 (2). pp. 160 – 187. DOI 10.1108/JFMPC-06-2015-0019
  • Emerald Literati Network Awards 2016 for Excellence as Highly Commended papers: Achour N,  Pantzartzis E, Pascale F,  Price ADF, (2015), Integration of resilience and sustainability: from theory to application. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 6 (3), pp. 347 – 362 DOI 10.1108/IJDRBE-05-2013-0016
  • Emerald Literati Network Awards 2015 for Excellence as Highly Commended papers: Pascale F, Achour N, Price ADF and Polverino F, (2014), Evaluation of factors and approaches affecting emergency department space planning. Facilities, 32 (13/14), pp. 761-785, DOI: 10.1108/F-09-2012-0073.
  • Awarded by the Enterprise Awards 2015 as Highly Commended project for the Health Building Note 08-02: Dementia-friendly Health and Social Care Environments: Pantzartzis E, Pascale F, Price ADF, (2015) Health Building Note 08-02: Dementia-friendly Health and Social Care Environments. Department of Health, 2015. 
  • Awarded by Design & Health International Academy Award Categories 2015 as Best Non-Student Research Project for “Design for People living with dementia”: Research Project “Improving the environment of care for people with dementia”. Department of Health. Total value: £270,000.

Erasmus research placement at ARU: The PhD Student Adriana Luciano, Doctorate School in Civil Systems Engineering, XXXII Cycle, Federico II University, Naples (Italy), joint the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, from 1st June to 8th November 2019 funded by the Erasmus Programme. Her thesis was on Evaluation of the home environment in which older adults live for the definition of living standards”. Her work while at ARU focused on improving the model associated to the indicator proposed in her PhD research. The research provides an innovative tool to assess the age-friendliness of housing. This can be a useful decision support tool for stakeholders (policymakers, technicians, homeowners, occupants/residents) to address interventions in existing housing or when designing new housing. Adriana completed her PhD on 3rd April 2020 (Supervisory team: Prof. Francesco Polverino, (First Supervisor) and Dr. Federica Pascale (Second Supervisor).

Funded research projects

  • February 2019 ARU funding: £10,000 – developing housing research specifically focused on social housing for older people/inter-generational models.
  • November 2018 RIDO Sandpit funding: £5,000 - peri-urban and rural community health and housing (cross faculty award in collaboration with PARI)
  • September 2018 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor Research Trust: £13,540 - Resilience and Community: models of housing for an ageing population
  • September 2018 Almshouse Association: £9,500 - focused scoping review on almshouses and their distinct contribution to future housing provision (this is already on the list)
  • January 2018 KEEP+: £41,500 – working with architecture practice developing environmental processes/dissemination tool (this one is already on your list)
  • June 2018 RIDO: £2,000 - RIDO research project for undergraduate students
  • April 2018 EBE Sandpit -V: 2018 - £9,000 - scoping review for almshouse research – and developing resilient communities impact/research
  • October 2017 RIDO Sandpit funding: £5,000 - peri-urban and rural mobility challenges for older people (cross faculty award)
  • July 2017 EBE Sandpit -IV: £1,000 – dissemination of design research project
  • H2020 research project “Towards more Earthquake-resilient Urban Societies through a Multi-sensor-based Information System enabling Earthquake Forecasting, Early Warning and Rapid Response Actions (TURNkey)”. Horizon 2020, value: EURO 8,000,000.
  • H2020 research project “Assessment and mitigation of liquefaction potential across Europe: a holistic approach to protect structures / infrastructures for improved resilience to earthquake-induced liquefaction disasters — LIQUEFACT’”. Horizon 2020, value: EURO 4,944,072.50.
  • “Study on the current technology related to the Built Environment (BE) to support older adults to live independently in their community”. Positive Ageing Research Institute (PARI), value: £ 6315.50; EBE Sandpit V 2018, value: £8,000.
  • “Multicultural and Multigenerational Visions of Community Resilience in the Fens, Cambridgeshire, England”. Anglia Ruskin University Sandpit 2018, Total value: £7,000.
  • “Collaboration between the UK and Japan on Healthcare Emergency Planning (Major Disasters)”. EBE Sandpit IV 2017, Total value: £2,900
  • “Dependency and interdependency of healthcare facilities”. EBE QR Seed Funding 2016. Total value:  £2,000.
  • “Nature based solutions for inclusive urban regeneration”. EBE QR Seed Funding 2016. Total value: £2,000.

Professor of Architecture, Maria Vogiatzaki published the book ‘Architectural Materialisms: Nonhuman Creativity’, Edinburgh University Press, in 2018. Course Leader for Architecture, Francesco Zuddas (with ARU Associate Lecturer Sabrina Puddu) published the book, ‘Made in Taiwan: Architecture and Urbanism in the Innovation Economy (Alps)’, in 2012; (with Sabrina Puddu and Martino Tattara) ‘Territori della Conoscenza: Un Progetto per Cagliari e la sua Università’ (Quodlibet) in 2017; and, ‘The University as a Settlement Principle: Territorialising Knowledge in Late 1960s Italy’ (Routledge Research in Architecture) in 2019. Dr Lakshmi Priya Rajendran, Senior Research Fellow in Future Cities, Faculty of Science and Engineering, and Dr NezHapi Dellé Odeleye, Course Leader, MSc Town Planning, published, ‘Mediated Identities in the Futures of Place: Emerging Practices and Spatial Cultures’, Springer in 2020.