Dr. Jiayi (Jennifer) Jin is an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies. She joined Northumbria in Jan 2018 as a Lecturer. Her research is transdisciplinary spanning the fields of architectural and planning theories, digital technologies, sustainable development and participation in planning processes.

Before joining Northumbria, Jiayi held teaching and research positions at Mixed Reality Lab (MRL) and the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham. She has over 12 years of experience in architecture and urban planning with international architecture practice. These practical reflections have led to different research projects funded by the British Academy (2021 and 2024), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, 2023-24 and 2025-26), and various research and innovation funds. She also received multiple research awards when collaborating with museum and art institutions, this includes Newcastle Culture Investment Fund (2021), Early Career Artist Bursary (2020-21), Digital Culture Award (England Arts Council, 2019), etc.

Her research focuses on the role of new media and technologies in knowledge production and socio-spatial linkage generation, inclusive innovation with architectural or urban environments, and creative participation in sustainable, inclusive city development. Her projects include "Participatory Neighbourhood Planning for the ‘Brown to Green’ Transition in Tyneside" (AHRC), "Gender-inclusive Cities", "Developing a Grassroots Sustainable Futures Platform: Collective Participation in Community-Based Cultural Organisations / CEoN" (British Academy).

She is the Principal Investigator for two ongoing projects: "Navigating Urban Ecologies: Mapping the Habitation Patterns and Socio-Ecological Dynamics of Kittiwakes along the River Tyne" (AHRC, £128K) and "Envisioning Mobility Hubs (EMHs) – Utilising Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) to Enhance Infrastructure Resilience" (RIS, £17K).

Jiayi taught studio at all levels from undergraduate to post-graduate, as well as theory courses and research methods for MArch and PhD. She is the Department Ethics Co-lead for Architecture and Built Environment, she was the Studio Lead of MArch Studio: Performing Architectures (2018-2022), Acting Programme Lead for Master of Architecture (2021-2022). Her teaching is research-led and informed by her extensive knowledge of architecture practices, planning contexts, urban issues and case studies across the globe.

Jiayi welcomes applications for conventional & practice-as-research PhD proposals within her research fields.

1) Creative Participation for Inclusive Planning - I recently completed an AHRC project 'Participatory Neighbourhood Planning for the 'Brown to Green' Transition in Tyneside' (Grant Ref: AH/Y000250/1) as the Principal Investigator (PI, 2023-24). This project was dedicated to harnessing the values and priorities of citizens in shaping the vision and progress of post-industrial waterfront revitalisation along River Tyne in the UK. I was also the Co-I on a British Academy-funded project titled 'Collective Participation in Community-Based Cultural Organisations' (Grant Ref: SSF/210084). This project employed a co-creation toolkit to explore adaptability and transformation within local communities. These research endeavours and their extensions centre on promoting creative involvement to bolster sustainable and inclusive urban development.

2) Digital Applications with New Urban Initiatives - I started working in this field during my PhD studies at the University of Nottingham, where I developed expertise in augmented spaces and their intricate design considerations. This expertise delved into the broader sociological context of technology-enabled interactions, which seamlessly bridge the realms of digital and physical layers in architecture and cities. In April 2024, I was awarded a British Academy project ‘Navigating Eco-Social Vulnerabilities (NESV): Uncovering Knowledge and Practical Gaps Across the UK, the Netherlands and Norway’ as a Co-I. This project focuses on a specific call HORIZON-CL5-2024-D4-02-05: Built4People Partnership to explore how digital interventions can bolster integrated urban innovation, empowering vulnerable communities to confront climate-related challenges with resilience.

3) Reimagining the City for Gender Inclusivity – I lead the project 'Gender-inclusive Cities' (PI, 2022-) which examines how urban design and planning are conceptualised and experienced through a gender lens. The project initially focused on integrating gender inclusivity into Newcastle's City Centre Transformation Plan (CCTP). Over time, it has expanded to explore a wide range of topics, including feminist urban environments, masculinity in urban design, gender dynamics in urban politics, and inclusive city morphology. And the team has collaborated with various external partners to test different methods—such as Gender Equity walks, interviews, documentaries, counter-mapping, and GIS/PGIS analysis—aiming to explore the depth of this research domain and identify potential avenues for inquiry across multiple fields and disciplines.