Dr Julie Trueman

Assistant Professor

Department: Northumbria School of Design

Driven by design, energised by the outdoors and motivated by spontaneous decisions, Julie has hybrid experience derived from a former career as a hospital doctor/ Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and a career change in 2003 to commercial interior design. Having worked on national and international interior and architectural projects in industry, this experience supported her transition to teaching when she joined Northumbria in 2009. Her roles since have included international admissions tutor, final year tutor and programme leader with collaborative research providing a healthy inquisitive balance with increasing significance. Drawing from her dual background, Julie’s initial research interests focused on spatial and architectural solutions to improve not only health outcomes and efficiency, but how our designs can also support compassion, dignity and empathy when designing for our final days. More recently, having co-run the Open Studio Programme at the Bauhaus, Dessau in 2018 and 2020, this has prompted an interest in pedagogical research, looking specifically at proxemics for learning. Julie is currently collaborating with the research academy at the Bauhaus to develop this strand of research further.

Campus Address

School of Design
Northumbria University, City Campus East 2
Newcastle upon Tyne
Ne1 8ST

Email Julie

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Julie has had varied, yet interconnected research interests. In earlier collaborations with JDDK Architects, they set out to identify, evaluate and disseminate good evidence-based practice in hospice design, presenting 'Designing with care: Hospice design since 1980' at Professional Practices in the Built Environment, Reading (2017), which in turn supported her involvement with the EPSRC-funded research project “Ongoingness” in which digital practices were explored that enable a continued sense of connection between someone bereaved and a person who has died. In collaboration with Open Lab, Newcastle University, Julie has also advised on the use of smart materials for designing interactive interiors in 'Interioractive: Smart Materials in the Hands of Designers and Architects for Designing Interactive Interiors'.

Where possible Julie brings the research into the studio with innovative workshops, which more recently, has stimulated a firm interest in the pedagogy of learning environments. Having co-ran the Open Studio Newcastle Programme at the Bauhaus, Dessau in 2018, which explored proxemics of teaching and learning, this was further developed in a workshop at Virginia Tech, entitled the “Neue Sehen (New Vision) of Future Design Education”. Returning to the Bauhaus in 2020 to run a second Open Studio series of workshops, with delivery of a keynote lecture, has led to a collaboration with the research academy. The current project prompted by Julie’s sabbatical explores student anticipation and engagement when working online with iconic institutions, using digital ethnographic techniques as part of the evaluation process.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Development of an ethical roadmap, Craig, C., Wallace, J., Montague, K., Koulidou, N., Fisher, H., Carvalho, L., Groot, L., Trueman, J., Lawson, S., Morrissey, K., Duncan, T., South, J. 31 May 2021, In: Design for Health
Design research to support ongoingness, Wallace, J., Duncan, T., Lawson, S., Trueman, J., Montague, K., Carvalho, L., Groot, L., Craig, C., Fisher, H., Koulidou, N. 2020, In: Bereavement Care
ReFind: Design, Lived Experience and Ongoingness in Bereavement, Wallace, J., Montague, K., Duncan, T., Cavalho, L., Koulidou, N., Mahoney, J., Morrissey, K., Craig, C., Groot, L., Lawson, S., Olivier, P., Trueman, J., Fisher, H. 25 Apr 2020, Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’20): April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA, ACM
Bauhaus Open Studio Teaching Models: Workshop, Exhibition and Publication, Adams, R., Trueman, J. 2 Feb 2019
‘Blueprints’ physical to digital: curation of media to support ongoingness, Wallace, J., Koulidou, N., Duncan, T., Lawson, S., Trueman, J., Craig, C., Fisher, H., Morrissey, K., Montague, K., Welch, D. 22 Apr 2019, Fourth Biennial Research Through Design Conference
Learning Power: The Impact of space to inform, perform and reform design scholarship, Adams, R., Trueman, J. 30 Jun 2019, International COnference on Pedagogy and Educational Sciences
The Neue Sehen (New Vision) of Future Design Education, Trueman, J., Adams, R. 6 May 2019, The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation (ERI2019), IAFOR
Decorating Public and Private Spaces: Identity and Pride in a Refugee Camp, Nabil, S., Talhouk, R., Trueman, J., Kirk, D., Bowen, S., Wright, P. 20 Apr 2018, CHI EA '18: Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, ACM
Designing with Care: Hospice designs by JDDK Architects, Trueman, J., Holgate, P., Mullan, M. 2017, Building Knowledge: Pathways to Post Occupancy Evaluation, RIBA Publications

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Oral presentation: Intangible Boundaries 2020
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Workshop - Interior Design: Bauhaus Open Studio 2020
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation 2019: Digital Proxemics Workshop 2019
Publication Peer-review: The IAFOR Conference on Education Research & Innovation (Event) 2019
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Bauhaus Workshop - Interior Design 2018

Qualifications

Interior Design BA (Hons) July 01 2006
Medicine MRCPCH(UK) October 01 1997
Medicine MBChB(Hons) July 04 1993
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts FRSA 2018
Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2017
Affilate Member Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 2016
Member Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) 1997

Northumbria Open Days

Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.

Research at Northumbria

Research is the life blood of a University and at Northumbria University we pride ourselves on research that makes a difference; research that has application and affects people's lives.