![Dimitra Ntzani FHEA BSc & MArch equivalent, MSc, PhD](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/5938?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
My research is interdisciplinary and brings theories and methods from the field of cognitive linguistics and distributed cognition into design studies and the design management of contested histories and heritages. It focuses on spatial metaphors as cognitive scaffoldings and their ability to shape architectural design and support empathetic engagement in various educational environments (HE & heritage institutions). Hence, I am also interested in Inclusive Design pedagogies and strategies that support and create more inclusive mindsets in architectural education. In practice, this includes: (a) storytelling and narrative‑based design pedagogies; (b) costume‑ and props‑making workshops to study diverse embodiments; and (c) performing arts and theatrical play as tools for building empathy with disabled communities in participatory design.
I am a member of the academic committee of the GW4-funded research community Architectures of Alterity, which consolidates academic knowledge on alternative architectural practices. My interests also extend to Inclusive Design pedagogies and strategies that cultivate inclusive mindsets in architectural education. My current research examines the role of performing arts in design-learning as a means to develop empathetic understanding of users with physical and/or learning disabilities.
Over the past five years, I have led a series of civic‑engaged and research‑driven projects that explore otherness, embodiment, and inclusive urban experience. With the Architectures of Alterity network (GW4 Research Communities Award, 2023), I created an interdisciplinary event that brought together scholars and practitioners that examine how alternative embodiments and identities reshape architectural design and education.
Building on this, I co-organised the Reflective Cities, Creative Mindsets symposium (Wellcome Trust Ignite Grant, 2025), for delegates who worked with young people to cultivate creative engagements with the built environment, encouraging reflective and imaginative practices that reveal how cities shape, and are shaped by, personal and collective identities.
My civic engagement also includes LFA 2024 – Queering Femininity, an awarded programme combining thinking‑walks and visual activism. In this project, we collaborated with LGBTQ+ youth to rethink gentrified urban spaces through queer perspectives, generating alternative narratives of femininity and visibility in the city.Finally, through the AHRC Being Human Festival project My City, My Body, My Selfie (2024–25-26), I co-led workshops that enabled teenagers that identify as female and/or LGBTQ+ and allies to explore self‑representation, care, and spatial identity through creative, body‑centred collage-making practices.
