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Dr Tara Hipwood

Assistant Professor

Department: Architecture and Built Environment

I am a Chartered Architect and a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable and Environmental Design in the Department of Architecture at Northumbria University

Prior to commencing my Ph.D in Low Carbon Housing Retrofit at Cardiff University in 2014, I was engaged in architectural education. Beginning at the University of Bath and the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Strasbourg, France, this was followed by postgraduate studies, specialising in Sustainable Building: Performance and Design and RIBA Professional Practice examinations, both at Oxford Brookes University. My studies were combined with periods in architectural practice both in the UK and abroad, working on a variety of projects across the commercial, public, healthcare and social housing sectors, first as an architectural assistant and finally as a qualified architect.

I currently lead the final year of the BA Architecture programme and tutor  across both the Interior Architecture and postgraduate Architecture programmes on various aspects of sustainable, environmental and regenerative design.

Tara Hipwood

Campus Address

C101, Ellison Building
Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 8ST,

My research interests focus around the intersections between occupant wellbeing, the built environment, and the natural environment – and perhaps most importantly where the distinction between these elements breaks down. My Ph.D. studies, explored a nexus-of-practice perspective towards teleological influences on owner-occupiers’ home improvements and the implications this has for encouraging low carbon retrofit. I am currently developing this theoretical approach further to explore how regenerative design principles support practices of care – both social and ecological – in post-industrial communities.

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Enabling Owner-Occupiers to Retrofit: A Practice-Based Study of Architects’ Educative Role, Ghasemi, H., Hipwood, T., Holgate, P. 26 Jan 2024, AMPS Proceedings Series 33.1, Architecture Media Politics Society
  • Memory and Reinvention in the Post-industrial Periphery: Section of the Communities & Change Exhibition, Hipwood, T., Martinez Capdevila, P. 3 Jul 2023
  • Repurposing as Learning: Understanding the Role of Architects in Enabling Owner-Occupiers to Retrofit, Ghasemi, H., Hipwood, T., Holgate, P. 2023, Proceedings of the International Conference, London, Counterarchitecture
  • ‘Unprecedented times’: historical narratives of public health in the built environment, Hipwood, T., Lee, S. 4 Apr 2023, In: Architecture_MPS
  • Adapting owner-occupied dwellings in the UK: lessons for the future, Hipwood, T. 11 May 2022, In: Buildings and Cities
  • Sustainable Homes: [Post] Pandemic Reflections: Women in Architecture Digital Nexus 2022 Exhibition, Hipwood, T. 29 Aug 2022
  • Decarbonising Social Housing in North England, Mokhtar Azizi, Z., Davidson, G., Hipwood, T., Lilley, S., Watson, R. Oct 2021
  • Panel keynote: Connectivity in Design, A Joined-up Approach to Health and Wellbeing: Human-Centred Architecture and Designing for Inclusion, Hipwood, T., Torun, A., McIntyre, L., Sedgewick, F. 5 Nov 2021, Architecture Media Politics and Society: Global Health Conference – Environments by Design: Health, Wellbeing, and Place
  • Understanding low-carbon housing retrofit within a wider nexus of practices, Hipwood, T. May 2021, In: Journal of Architecture
  • Coronavirus: an architect on how the pandemic could change our homes forever, Hipwood, T. 26 May 2020

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Visiting an external academic institution: House of Commons 2023
  • Invited talk: Domestic Retrofit Case Study Event 2023
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Memory Studies Association 7th Annual Conference 2023
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: AHRA 2022 - Building Ground for Climate Collectivism: Architecture after the Anthropocene 2022
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Micro Civic Institutions of Care 2022
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Agency and Entanglement 2022
  • Editorial work: Architecture_MPS (Journal) 2022
  • Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Architecture Media Politics and Society: Global Health Conference – Environments by Design: Health, Wellbeing, and Place 2021
  • Invited talk: Decarbonising Social Housing in North-East England 2021
  • Invited talk: Decarbonising Social Housing in North-East England 2021

Habib Ghasemi Architects as Educators: Reconceptualising the Role of Design Professionals In Owner-Occupier Low Carbon Retrofit Start Date: 18/01/2021

  • Education PGCert June 01 2020
  • Geography PhD December 14 2018
  • Architecture MSc June 30 2011
  • Architecture DipArch June 30 2010
  • Architecture BSc (Hons) June 30 2007
  • Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy AFHEA 2015
  • RIBA Examination in Management, Practice, and Law RIBA Part III 2012
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Aacdemy FHEA 2020
  • Architect Registration Board (Reg. No. 080358H) 2012
  • Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA 2012


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