IMPACT

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The Unit’s high-quality, collaborative research has led to transformative change and lasting impact from a local to global level across a range of areas such as industry, culture, and healthcare. Researchers have partnered closely with companies and organisations such as Ryder Architecture, Space Group, the Ministry of Housing, the Centre for Digital Built Britain, Historic England and more to address business critical problems and bring about lasting change. Some highlights of our work can be seen below.

Researchers from the Digital Built Environment group have provided visualisation solutions for 40 major developments in the North East – helping decision makers plan, market, and assess new developments. Publications on the topic include:

Greenwood, D.*, Margaret Horne, Emine M. Thompson, Allwood, C.M., Wernemyr, C., and Westerdahl, B. (2008) ‘Strategic Perspectives on the Use of Virtual Reality within the Building Industries of Four Countries’, International Journal of Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 4, 85-98. DOI:10.3763/aedm.2008.0076
Margaret Horne, Emine M. Thompson, and James Charlton ‘Towards a Multifunctional Virtual City Model’, in N.N. Pinto, J.A., Tenedorio, A.P., and Antunes, J. Roca (eds) Urban and Spatial Planning: Virtual Cities and Territories, (IGI Global, 2012) DOI:10.4018/978-1-4666- 4349-9.ch008
James Charlton, Bob Giddings, Emine M. Thompson, and Peverett, I. (2015) ‘Understanding the interoperability of virtual city models in assessing the performance of city centre squares’ Environment and Planning A, 47: 1298 DOI:10.1177/0308518X15594904

Research on spatial inequalities across the country from the People and Place group have informed legislative scrutiny of the Business Rates Retention Scheme and the Business Rates System. Publications on the topic include:

Kevin Muldoon-Smith and Paul Greenhalgh (2015) ‘Passing the buck without the bucks: Some reflections on fiscal decentralisation and the Business Rate Retention Scheme in England’ Local Economy 30(6): 609-626
Kevin Muldoon-Smith and Paul Greenhalgh (2017) ‘Debate: Real estate value – what next for fiscal decentralization in England?’ Public Money & Management 38(1): 54-56
Paul Greenhalgh, Kevin Muldoon-Smith and Angus*, S. (2016) ‘Commercial property tax in the UK: business rates and rating appeals’ Journal of Property Investment & Finance 34(6): 602-619
Paul Greenhalgh, Lynn Johnson and Huntley**, V. (2019) 'An investigation of the impact of 2017 business rates revaluation on independent high street retailers in the north of England' Journal of Property Investment & Finance 37(3): 241-254
Kevin Muldoon-Smith (2019) ‘Is it possible to incentivise and capture local wealth? The business rate challenge’ Local Economy 34(3): 213-220
Paul Greenhalgh, King***, H., Kevin Muldoon-Smith, Adebayo****, A. and Ellis, J. (2020) ‘Using GIS to explore the potential of business rating data to analyse stock and value change for land administration: a case study of York’ International Journal of Geo-Information 9(5): 321

Architectural Design group researchers are utilising design-based research and innovative technologies to help enhance, protect and preserve cultural heritage sites. This has helped ensure the future of local National Trust heritage sites such as Gibside Hall and Seaton Delaval Hall. Northumbria’s design solutions have helped them secure new funding to support redevelopment of heritage assets, increase visitor numbers and raise awareness of the historical and cultural importance of these sites. Publications on the topic include:

Lomas, K.* and Paul Ring (2012) ‘Restoration: Authenticity and deception’ Built and Natural Environment Research Papers: Architecture 5(1): 41-51
Ruth Dalton Designing for Heritage: Contemporary Visitor Centres (Lund Humphries, 2017) ISBN 9781848222144. Available on request.

Northumbria Architecture researchers helped develop a new mobile game to support early dementia diagnosis. Using her expertise in human spatial navigation from designing new buildings, Professor Ruth Dalton helped design the games various levels from simple through to challenging, in order test user’s navigational ability and help advance understanding of spatial navigation in the brain. Publications on the topic include:

Ruth Conroy Dalton, Hölscher, C., and Montello, D. R. (2019) 'Wayfinding as a Social Activity' Frontiers in Psychology 10(142): 1-14
Ruth Conroy Dalton, Hölscher, C., and Spiers, H. 'Navigating Complex Buildings: Cognition, Neuroscience and Architectural Design' Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity Gero, J. (ed) 3-22 (London: Springer, 2015)