Dr Lidia Badarnah

Qualifications:

PhD, BArch, FHEA

Position:

Senior Lecturer in Architecture

Department:

FET - Architecture and the Built Environment

Email:

Lidia.Badarnah@uwe.ac.uk

Social media:

About me

Education:

Ph.D. in Architecture, Delft University of Technology (2012)
Bachelor in Architecture (cum laude), Technion (2005)

Dr Lidia Badarnah is a designer, educator, and researcher in architecture working at the intersection of environment, buildings, services, users and natural systems. She joined UWE in September 2018. She received her PhD in Architecture from TU-Delft and carried out her postdoctoral studies at the Building Technology Lab at MIT, and worked at the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University and at the Emergent Technologies & Design Programme (EmTech) at the Architectural Association in London before joining UWE Bristol. She received competitive fellowships and awards, and has been invited to give talks and organise workshops internationally.

Lidia is the Engagement Lead at the Centre of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABER). Her work contributes to an emerging area that seeks to redefine environmental design in architecture through mimicking natural systems (i.e. biomimetics), changing approaches from conventional separated building systems to adaptive and integrated solutions and methods for enhanced sustainability and resilience in architecture. Throughout her academic career, she has developed a significant experience in teaching and research at the intersection of domains.

Lidia's approach is systematic and multi-disciplinary to solving design problems, tackling global societal and environmental challenges in novel ways. Her work aligns with UWE Beacons ‘creative industries and technologies’ and ‘sustainability and climate change resilience’ and establishes an ambitious and innovative research strand for UWE in biomimetics. 

PhD students:

• Amber Mota, 'Beyond Immortal Media: A Critical Design Framework for Posthuman Archival Preservation', expected year of graduation 2029. Associate Prof. Judith Aston (Director of Studies) and Dr. Lidia Badarnah (second supervisor), Ms Amanda Egbe (third supervisor)
• Sara Jalali, 'Adaptive Design Strategies for Integrated Solar Envelopes', year of graduation 2026, UWE. Supervision team: Dr. Lidia Badarnah (Director of Studies, first supervisor), Dr. Eleonora Nicoletti (second supervisor) and Prof. Jessica Lamond (third suprvisor)
• Hope Ameh, 'AMPHI-BIO-TECTURE: sustainable solutions inspired by nature for flood mitigation', year of graduation 2025, UWE. Supervision team: Prof. Jessica Lamond (DoS, first supervisor), Dr. Lidia Badarnah (second supervisor) and Dr. Eduardo Costa (third supervisor)
• Francesco Sommese, 'Biomimetic Adaptive Building Envelopes', year of graduation 2024, University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Supervision team: Prof. Gigliola Ausiello (principal supervisor) and Dr. Lidia Badarnah (external supervisor)

PhD supervision and funding opportunities are available - please send your CV and research interest to Lidia's E-mail.

Area of expertise

Biomimetics; design research; environmental adaptation; responsive building envelopes; regenerative design; systems thinking; energy behaviour; participatory co-production for sustainable and resilient design soluions

Research

Lidia has contributed to several projects and secured external and internal funding. 

GLOW (EP/V041770/1): Energy Nested Bio System Flows – from the home to the hub (£589k Co-I), funded by EPSRC Digital Economy Sustainable Digital Society, UKRI 2022-25.

Decoding functional morphologies from nature (£7.5k PI), funded by CABER Seed Fund 2025.

Crafting a Nature-inspired Future: a co-design workshop in architecture towards bridging the gap between academia and industry ( £6.5k PI), funded by AHRC Impact Acceleration Account 2024.

Biomimicry Design Toolkit, BioSEA, Singapore (expert advisor), funded by Design Singapore Council – Good Design Research award 2021-23.

Design innovation inspired by lizards for water-harvesting (£15k, PI), funded by UWE VC ECR 2021.

Biomimetic Thermal Insulation ($112k, PI), funded by MIT-Technion Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Ministry of Education for Outstanding Minorities, and the New England-Technion Foundation 2014-15.

GoogleScholar and ResearchGate

Teaching

Lidia has gained experience from working with leading educators at universities worldwide. Following her passion and commitment to teaching and learning, she received in 2014 the Kaufman Teaching Certificate from MIT, and became in 2020 a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK.

Since joining UWE, she has taught across several undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) programmes (Architecture and Environmental Engineering, BSc Architecture, Architecture and Planning, MArch, MSc Computational Architecture) in 12 modules, including Design Research [UBLMK-30-M], Crafting Systems [UBLLX1-15-M], Design and Engineering Studio 3 [UBLMRE-45-3], Studio B [UBLM6X-60-M], Research and Design Strategies [UBLMNV-15-2], Design studio 3 [UBLMG-45-3]; supervised UG and PhD dissertations, and been an academic personal tutor for numerous students.

Lidia's approach in teaching is research-led, problem-based and hands-on, exploring environmentally responsive solutions in different climates, triggering interesting investigations, stimulating innovation, and resulting in enjoyable student experiences. She has developed intriguing design briefs for several modules, bringing her expertise in environmental adaptation and biomimetics, that embed ecological, technological, and social interactions.

Publications

Publications loading...