Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Department Member, Environmental Psychology

Other Affiliations: University of Oslo, Department of Informatics

Ph.D candidate

Thesis Title: Walkplace. On affordances for human movement in architectural spaces

About

I am a Fulbright fellow and PhD candidate in the Environmental Psychology Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I graduated from the Department of Psychology and American Studies Center of the Warsaw University. I have also studied at at the JFK Institute for American Studies, Freie Universitet in Berlin, Germany. Just recently I moved to Oslo, Norway where I am conducting my dissertation project.

While getting the interdisciplinary training, I have also been working on a number of research projects both in and outside of academia. At CUNY, I was an associate of the New Media Lab, working on developing a 3D architectural model of the Graduate Center. For a few years I have also worked as research associate at the Children's Environments Research Group in the Center for Human Environments at CUNY. As a member of that team I also participated in an architectural programming for a design project headed by the Rockwell Design Group (in cooperation with the NYC Parks Department), for which I conducted an evaluation, mapping and spatial analysis of the existing play spaces in Lower Manhattan.

My own academic interests include evidence based design for both architectural and urban scale. My most recent research project has looked at the possibilities of using 3D virtual models in the evaluation of space configuration and design in terms of the ease of orientation and wayfinding. The dissertation study that I am conducting now in Norway in cooperation with the DESIGN av Informasjonsystemer  group at University of Oslo, is taking this topic further, aiming to identify the specific spatial qualities that influence our movement.

I  have also used the evidence based design approach as a freelance researcher and a consultant in Poland, where I founded a research-consulting company LIFESPACE
I have been doing consulting work for the Planning Department of City of Warsaw. The most recent project I have coordinated was a study on use patterns and place identity that informed the planning process for the most central area in the city. I have also been working as a consultant in Scandinavia, cooperating with the Nordic Urban Design Association.

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