Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos' Inaugural Lecture

In this inaugural lecture, Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos will reflect on her journey as an architect and researcher advancing collaborative, lean design management and digital innovation in the built environment. Drawing on interdisciplinary research projects across healthcare and housing, she will discuss how design management, stakeholder integration, and process innovation can generate real value for people by making the built environment more sustainable, efficient, and health-promoting. The lecture will highlight research on process integration, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and digital collaboration, and explore how these approaches can tackle contemporary challenges. It will conclude with a vision for future research and practice that bridges academia, industry, and policy — keeping people, communities, and health at the heart of design to build better futures for all.

Biography

Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos is Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture, Design and Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University. She is recognised for her contributions to design management, Lean Construction, value generation, and digital innovation in the built environment, with particular expertise in the design and delivery of healthcare facilities and social housing.

Originally trained as an architect, Professor Tzortzopoulos has over two decades of research experience dedicated to transforming design and construction processes through collaborative working and digital tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM). Her work has addressed complex front-end design challenges, requirements management, co-design, evidence-based design, automated code compliance, and the use of living labs to engage residents and communities in social housing retrofit projects.

She has been an active member of the International Group for Lean Construction since 1998, contributing to the global advancement of Lean principles in architecture and construction practice and research. She serves on the Board of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB)— one of the world’s oldest and largest networks for building and construction research, bringing together experts from over 60 countries to tackle critical issues facing the built environment.

Professor Tzortzopoulos also chairs the Global Leadership Forum for Construction Engineering and Management Programs (GLF-CEM), an influential community that connects heads of leading academic programs worldwide to drive excellence in education, research, and industry impact in construction engineering and management.

She has supervised numerous doctoral researchers, published widely, and remains committed to advancing collaborative, digitally enabled, and people-centred approaches that deliver real value and improve health and wellbeing through the built environment.

More details about her research and publications can be found on her ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8740-6753