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Miss Victoria Farrow

Job: Associate Professor, Subject Lead in Architecture

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Address: Â鶹ƵµÀ, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: N/A

E: Victoria.farrow@dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

Victoria is an associate professor, subject lead in architecture, educator, designer and practising architect with experience across multiple sectors of the built environment. In practice, Victoria has worked within the fields of architecture, planning, facilities management, building information modelling (BIM), occupancy planning, architectural visualisation and interior design. As an educator, Victoria has always been passionate about architectural education and throughout her academic career, she has developed connections with individuals and institutions across the UK as well as in the USA and South Africa, which have provided her with the opportunity to teach internationally and also collaborate on numerous projects and research activities. Most recently she has joined the board of directors for 'a students perspective', which is an audio podcast highlighting the interior architecture and design community through a series of recorded interviews in the USA and UK.

In 2011, Victoria co-founded the aae (association of architectural educators), which was formally announced in 2013 as the first association representing architectural educators in the UK. The aae was further supported by Victorias network in the USA with the NCBDS (national conference on the beginning design student) conference. Victoria organised and chaired the inaugural aae conference in 2013 and alongside aae colleagues, launched the aae journal, Charette, which remains the only journal on architectural education in the UK. Victoria has continued to support aae conferences as the director of events, on the conference and journal editorial committee and through research presentations on architectural education.

In 2013, Victoria set up the 'aae and Vectorworks scholarship programme', which provides free software to UK architecture schools, students and staff as well as other funding opportunities to academics. This initiative was showcased at the Vectorworks 2017 summit, Chicago, USA. Between 2010 and 2014, Victoria taught at Lincoln University and Nottingham Trent University, where she taught across multiple courses including architecture, interior architecture, architectural technology, BIM, set design and theatre design. In 2014, Victoria joined Birmingham City University as Course Leader for BA architecture and Year 1 year lead. In 2018, Victoria became an associate professor and has since been working across the faculty of art, design and media within the field of marketing and recruitment alongside her course duties, which have permitted her to gain experience writing multiple courses and managing her team through the RIBA validation process. Whilst at BCU, Victoria has created a new initiative, BIM in Birmingham, which is a suite of conferences organised by students from UG and PG courses delivering presentations from globally famous practices to audiences from around the world, connecting architecture students from multiple UK institutions.

The BIM in Birmingham suite of conferences has developed quickly between 2017 and 2023 and has become internationally recognised. Victoria was recently awarded a funding PhD from the University of Loughborough, which is focused on architectural pedagogy. With her PhD supervisors at Loughborough, Victoria is collaborating on a book for RIBA publishing on the field of precedent study. Alongside her work, she is an avid long distance runner and loves running shoes. Prior to leaving BCU she wrote the newest course, BsC Sports Shoe design, which formed collaborations between architecture, fashion, physiotherapy and sports science.

Research group affiliations

Institute of Architecture

Publications and outputs

  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2016
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2017
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2018
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2019
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2020
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2022
  • April 2017: DNA, Designers Network Alliance, Aae conference, Oxford Brookes University
  • April 2016, "aae and Vectorworks Scholarship Programme" presentation held at the Vectorworks Design Summit in Chicago
  • April 2016: AAE conference paper submitted and accepted, The Bartlett
  • September 2015: Blogging – An approach for Blended Learning, Seminar Hosted at Birmingham City University
  • September 2014: Baby Steps – Architecture without Stabilisers, Charette, Association of Architectural Educators Journal, Ingenta Publishing, ISBN 9782911253355
  • April 2013: ISBN 978-0-9576009-1-1.
  • June 2011: Research Seminar hosted at Nottingham Trent University.
  • June 2011: Research Seminar Hosted at Nottingham Trent University.
  • October 2011: Research Seminar Hosted at NTU.
  • Conferences and participation:
  • Hosted and Chaired AAE 2013 Inaugural Conference, Nottingham Trent University
  • Peer Reviewer for 2013, 2014 and 2016 aae conferences and on the conference committee for the following conferences:
  • 2013: AAE Conference 2013 at Nottingham Trent University
  • 2014: AAE Conference 2014 at Sheffield University
  • 2016: AAE Conference 2016 at The Bartlett, London
  • NCBDS conference paper reviewer and topic chair (2011, Nebraska)
  • NCBDS conference paper reviewer (2012, Chicago)
  • Contributor to the NCBDS conferences (USA) by Committee
  • Reveiwer, visiting critique at School of the Art Institute, Chicago, 2012
  • Visiting professor, Marywood University, Pennsylvania, USA, 2013 and 2014
  • Attended NCBDS conferences, USA in 2011 and 2012 as paper reviewer

Research interests/expertise

  • Design studio theory and practice
  • Digital software and use of social media in the design studio
  • Beginning design
  • Architectural communication and representation
  • Building information modelling
  • Architectural pedagogy
  • Qualified Architect
  • One of the founders of the association of Architectural educators
  • Beginning Design practice
  • Design Studio Practice
  • Architectural Communications and representation
  • Digital Software and the use of social media in the studio

Areas of teaching

  • Year 1, 2 and 3 Architecture | Design Studio
  • Architectural Communication and Representation
  • Professional Practice
  • Building Information Modelling
  • Collaborative Practice
  • Dissertations

Qualifications

  • University of Nottingham BA(Hons) Architecture, (RIBA Part 1)
  • University of Nottingham Diploma in Architecture with Merit (RIBA Part 2)
  • University of Nottingham, Masters in Architecture with commendation
  • University of Nottingham, (RIBA Part 3)
  • Birmingham City University, Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, Distinction
  • HEA
  • SHEA 

Courses taught

Architecture

Honours and awards

Associate Professor, 2018

Membership of external committees

  • ARB Registered Architect
  • AAE (association of architectural educators)
  • Vectorworks scholarship programme chair
  • BIM in Series Group

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • ARB Registered Architect
  • AAE (association of architectural educators)
  • Vectorworks scholarship programme chair
  • BIM in Series Group

Professional licences and certificates

ARB chartered practitioner

Projects

  • Research into the use of social media in studios via blogs
  • aae conference committee
  • aae co-founder, honorary secretary, treasurer
  • aae journal committee, Charette
  • aae and vectorworks scholarship programme
  • BIM in Series of events
  • Vectorworks

Conference attendance

  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2016
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2017
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2018
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2019
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2020
  • Hosted and Chaired, BIM in Birmingham international conference 2022
  • April 2017: DNA, Designers Network Alliance, Aae conference, Oxford Brookes University
  • April 2016, "aae and Vectorworks Scholarship Programme" presentation held at the Vectorworks Design Summit in Chicago
  • April 2016: AAE conference paper submitted and accepted, The Bartlett
  • September 2015: Blogging – An approach for Blended Learning, Seminar Hosted at Birmingham City University
  • September 2014: Baby Steps – Architecture without Stabilisers, Charette, Association of Architectural Educators Journal, Ingenta Publishing, ISBN 9782911253355
  • April 2013: ISBN 978-0-9576009-1-1.
  • June 2011: Research Seminar hosted at Nottingham Trent University.
  • June 2011: Research Seminar Hosted at Nottingham Trent University.
  • October 2011: Research Seminar Hosted at NTU.
  • Conferences and participation:
  • Hosted and Chaired AAE 2013 Inaugural Conference, Nottingham Trent University
  • Peer Reviewer for 2013, 2014 and 2016 aae conferences and on the conference committee for the following conferences:
  • 2013: AAE Conference 2013 at Nottingham Trent University
  • 2014: AAE Conference 2014 at Sheffield University
  • 2016: AAE Conference 2016 at The Bartlett, London
  • NCBDS conference paper reviewer and topic chair (2011, Nebraska)
  • NCBDS conference paper reviewer (2012, Chicago)
  • Contributor to the NCBDS conferences (USA) by Committee
  • Reveiwer, visiting critique at School of the Art Institute, Chicago, 2012
  • Visiting professor, Marywood University, Pennsylvania, USA, 2013 and 2014
  • Attended NCBDS conferences, USA in 2011 and 2012 as paper reviewer

Consultancy work

  • Architecture Y
  • Design Y
  • Course Writing Y
  • Architectural Education Y

Externally funded research grants information

  • aae 2013 conference
  • BIM in Suite of events 2016 - ongoing

Case studies

  • Association of Architectural Educators - National group of architectural educators
  • Sponsorship with Vectorworks and Nemetschek - Global innovation 
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