Dr Jill Zhao

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Role:

Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Construction Technology

Department staff:

FET - Architecture and the Built Environment

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Qualifications:PhD MSc BArch FHEA
Position:Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Construction Technology
Department:FET - Architecture and the Built Environment
Telephone:+441173281538
Email:Jill.Zhao@uwe.ac.uk
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About me

Jill Zhao is a researcher and educator in Sustainable Architecture, and a certified Passivhaus designer. She has particular interests in Net Zero policy, energy behaviour, comfort and health, Digital Humanities integration, and socio‑technical approaches to decarbonisation. She is an active member of the Centre for Advanced Built Environment Research and the Architecture Research Group. She leads cross‑disciplinary initiatives that embed climate action and community engagement into curriculum, research and practice, including the UWE Living Lab, SHAPEing Net Zero ECR Consortium, and serves as an expert at the Bristol Advisory Commission of Climate Change (BACCC). Her current projects focus on participatory methods and the use of digital technologies and gamification to understand and support decarbonisation transition and behaviour change.

Her research is underpinned by a strong commitment to environmental and social sustainability. Human‑centred, place‑based approaches, co‑production and interdisciplinary collaboration form the core of her research practice. Jill is deeply engaged in public and policy‑facing work and holds multiple external consultancy and knowledge‑exchange roles. Jill’s work informs national and international policy, including citations in UK and EU government reports. She was recognised through the Royal Society Pairing Scheme (2024), Foundation Future Leader (2023), and she served as a judge for the Architect’s Journal Architecture Awards (2022–2024).

PhD Supervision and visiting scholar

Jill welcomes PhD applicants and visiting scholars researching in areas including but not limited to:

Sustainable Architecture design, Passivhaus and Low-carbon Building
Energy Retrofit and occupants behaviour
Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) and Human Interactions
Occupants comfort, health and wellbeing in low-carbon homes
Socio-technical futures and digital methods
Place-based decarbonisation and low-carbon housing development
Net Zero policy and implementation
Microclimate, landscape and human comfort
Participatory approach to decarbonisation
Digital technology and gamification in decarbonisation

Jill Zhao joined UWE Bristol in 2023 as a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Construction Technology. She teaches across architecture and the built environment, brings together architecture, engineering and environmental design and has been nationally recognised through the Engineering Professors’ Council award for pedagogic innovation.

Prior to joining UWE Bristol, Jill was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, where she gained FHEA status and led the BA (Hons) Architecture programme in partnership with SHAPE (Hong Kong). She contributed extensively to curriculum development in Architectural Technology and Environment and secured internal and external research, consultancy and KTP projects exceeding £170k. Earlier, she received architectural training and professional experience in both China and the UK, working with international practices including SMC Alsop Beijing (now SPARK Architects, Singapore), DnA (Beijing) and GRID Architects (London). Her academic career began in 2013 at the University of Edinburgh, where she served as a teaching and research assistant during her doctoral studies on the lived experience of Passivhaus, completing her PhD in Architecture in 2018.

Policy impact and notable citations

British Academy report: Governance for Net Zero cites my paper
Written evidence submitted to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Inquiry into Heat resilience and sustainable cooling quoted in report: Heat resilience and sustainable cooling
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) Expert contributor: Enabling green choices for net zero
Essay cited in Hight Education Policy Institute Early Career Researcher lived experience report.

External Roles

EPSRC and ESRC peer review college member
Architect's Journal Architecture Award (AJAA) Judge
Foundation Future Leader Scheme 2023 - funded by Foundation for Science and Technology
Expert register on Bristol Advisory Commission of Climate Change (BACCC)
Founder of SHAPEing Net Zero Collective
Lead for UK-China Innovation Partnership Programme UK consortium on built environment research supported by UK-CARE
Founding member of CarbonLEAF consultancy group
Advisory Board Member to British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Midlands Hub (2021-2023)
Judge for Skegness and Mablethorpe Town Deal regional regeneration Grants Panel (2022)
Academic advisor to Lincoln Climate Commission Group (2022-2023)

Area of expertise

Passivhaus, energy behaviour, IEQ, comfort, maturity model, digital humanities, qualitative methodology, socio-technical approach, participatory and co-design methods, IES modelling

Research Interests

Jill Zhao’s research primarily focuses on Net Zero and housing. Her work is underpinned by developing a deeper understanding of people’s perceptions, opinions and behaviours in relation to retrofitting and the use of low‑carbon technologies in the home. She also examines the sociotechnical and organisational change required for decarbonisation in the building sector and its implications for policy. Her expertise extends to the delivery of low‑carbon and Passivhaus housing—particularly affordable housing—its social value, local benefits, and its integration into policy development, implementation and ongoing evaluation.

Her research aims to embed the human element within the design of sustainable architecture across diverse social and cultural contexts. This includes occupants’ comfort, wellbeing, lived experience and behavioural responses, with a focus on socio‑technical approaches that explore interactions between human and non‑human systems in the built environment. Jill’s work spans academia, policy, private practice and the third sector, supporting local growth, levelling up and community development. She has a strong interest in interdisciplinary research and has collaborated with scholars across landscape design, product design, fine art, computer science, sociology and psychology.

Current Projects

TRACE - Co-design a Tenant-centred Retrofit Assessment and Comfort Evaluation Framework to Support Decarbonisation
PHOCUS - Decision-making toolkit to implement Passivhaus standard in social housing sector - funded by UWE VC ECR
UWE Living Lab co-founder
CHANGE - Co-design a Human-centred Approach for Net zero: Gamifying Energy-behaviour - funded by CABER
SHAPEing Net Zero Collective - ECR consortium lead
Rethinking Climate - a collaboration with University of Nottingham and University of Pennsylvania

Previous Projects

Royal Society Pairing Scheme 2024: Week in Westminster (PI) - funded by Royal Society
UKRI Policy fellowship 2023: Building a green future (PI) - shortlisted
Net Zero Policy Discussion Paper (PI) - funded by British Academy
HOPE - Passivhaus Students Acoomodation POE (Co-I) - funded by CABER
1st and 2nd Sustainability Multidisciplinary Meetup (PI) - funded by British Academy
POE of low-carbon housing development in Lincolnshire (Co-I) Carbon LEAF consultancy - funded by Innovate UK
Micro-climate and urban cooling in China (Co-I) - funded by LingNan University
Developing an optimised working zone and all weather structure for external pavement painting (Co-I) - funded by Innovate UK KTP
Co-design a community hub Studio Garden @ Craigmiller (PI) - funded by University of Edinburgh
Student-Initiated REsearcher Network (PI) - funded by University of Edinburgh

Visiting Scholar

Shuang Liu (2018-2019), Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Lingnan Normal Univerisity.

Publications

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