Ilaria Geddes is the Research Lead of the Society and Urban Form (SURF) Research Lab at the Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus. She is a Senior Researcher on the Horizon Europe project Twinning Towards Research Excellence in Evidence-Based Planning and Urban Design (TWIN2EXPAND) and the DUT project Active Rooftops South Europe (aRTes); she also coordinates UCY’s work on the Erasmus+ projects Urban Care to Battle Climate Change Impacts on Urban Ecosystems and Health Across Different European Climate Zones (U-CARE). She was the Research Coordinator of the Erasmus+ project Knowledge Alliance for Evidence-Based Urban Practices (KAEBUP) and also coordinated UCY’s work on the Erasmus+ projects Integrated Planning Approaches in Higher Education: Collaborative Educational Prototype Towards Integrated Approaches in the Planning of Inclusive, People-centric and Climate-resilient Cities (InPlanEd). At University of Cyprus, she has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher developing the evidence-base to inform local planning policies and strategies to address sprawl in Cypriot cities, and as a researcher on projects dealing with participatory planning (SUGAR: Sustainable Urban Governance through Augmented Reality), and urban form and architectural pedagogy (EPUM: Emerging Perspectives on Urban Morphology). Her research focuses on diachronic analysis of city development, socio-spatial theory, evidence-based design and planning, and analysis of the public realm, towards the translation of scientific evidence for application in design and planning policy and practice. She contributes to teaching courses on Mediterranean Cities, Research Methodologies, and Specialised Topics in Urban Planning and Design. She is the co-president of the Cyprus Network of Urban Morphology (CyNUM), which she co-founded in 2016, and an Editorial Board Member of the journal Cities & Health. She holds a B.A. (Hons) in Classical Archaeology from King’s College London, two M.Sc. in GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, and in Housing Futures from University College London, and a Ph.D. in Architecture from University of Cyprus. As a Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Health Equity, she worked on the relationship between the built environment and health, contributing to the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England Post-2010 (Marmot Review), commissioned by the UK Government, and authored the report The Health Impacts of Cold Homes and Fuel Poverty, which received significant press coverage such as in The Telegraph and The Guardian. She previously worked in urban design practice as a Project Consultant for Space Syntax Limited undertaking spatial and statistical analysis of space use and urban development plans, including Walbrook Square and Tate Modern 2 in London. She was an honorary research assistant at UCL from 2005 to 2010.

Keywords: evidence-based design, space syntax, walkability, public realm, healthy cities