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Position

Professor of Design

Research Interests

Colour Design & Lighting
Product & Environmental Design
Healthcare Design
Inclusive Design & Accessibility
Visual Impairment & Colour Contrast
Sensory Design
Colour Measurement & Application
Vision
Art & Public Spaces

 

Introduction

Hilary Dalke has built an internationally recognised centre of excellence on colour design and lighting. Dalke is active in knowledge transfer as a designer, educator and leader, and at Kingston University she is now a Professor of Design.

 

Professor Dalke is an expert in accessibility, sensory design and the healthcare sector and specialises in colour contrast for the built environment. Her professional advice is sought by architects, manufacturers and developers of healthcare projects; for example in Seattle, USA, Ettelbruck, Luxemburg, Wales, London and Kingston. Dalke is regularly invited to give CPD lectures and seminars to architectural practices; these have included Norman Foster Partners, Anshen Allen, HOK, Wiesner Hager, many Borough Councils, and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. She was invited to speak at the RIBA Architects Journal conferences and The Building Centre, on Colour in the Built Environment and been a regular presenter at the international 'Include' Conferences at The Royal College of Art, Helen Hamlyn Research Centre conferences.

 

Three published books have presented valuable research based guidance on colour and lighting application, one for NHS Estates, Lighting and Colour for Hospital Design, co authored with BRE, a single authored book for the Home Office on the refurbishment of 12 prisons, The Colour Design Guide for the National Offender Management Service for the Home Office, and 'Colour Design Schemes for Long Term Healthcare Environments' with Dr Mark Matheson, funded by the AHRC. An EPSRC/Link project for the Department for Transport/RNIB/GDBA, 'Future Integrated Transport Environments: Colour, Lighting and Visual Impairment' examined problems in navigation and wayfinding in multi-modal transport environments for visually impaired travelers. Industrial applications for her work led to a product design research project with an American company, Hill-Rom which starts in 2008. As an academic partner on KTPs and currently an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Catalyst project, she is an advocate of support for SMEs, demonstrated in the establishing of a WestFocus Creative Industries Network, DESIGNPLUS based at Kingston University.

 

Dalke has managed refurbishment projects for a welsh psychiatric unit, an Elizabeth Fitzroy Home, Richmond, a unit for young adults with cerebral palsy, St Lukes Mental Healthcare Hospital, Middlesbrough and Age Concern New Malden. She has been involved as an advisor on many national and international projects with practices such as, WW Design, Van Heynigen Haward on the Lewisham Children's Centre; Dunlop Hayward; and Anshen Dyer on the Octav Botnar Wing, Great Ormond St Hospital. A contract with ICI Plc, Strategic Research Fund examined 'The Role of Colour Design and Odour in a Sense of Well-being: Environmental Multisensory Approach' with environmental psychologist Laura Stott and has led to collaborations with several Universities. These include Oxford University, Experimental Psychology Department with whom we are now working on an AHRC grant to investigate 'Multisensory Design Interventions for Perception of Environments' commencing in April 2008. These collaborations have established her centre's work as unique and required guidance on sensory design for the built environment.

 

Professor Dalke is a Member of the British Standards Technical Committee B/559/2/-/1 Light Reflectance Values (2008), Subcommittee B/559/2/-/1 Access to Buildings for disabled people, and a Colour Group Great Britain Committee Member since 2007. She was a faculty member of Kingston University staff entered for the RAE UoA in Art & Design 2007 and a member of the management committee of the MSc Inclusive Environments: Design and Management at The University of Reading. Dalke has contributed to the CIBSE Lighting in Hospitals Guide 2 and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Color Design and Creativity. She is a PhD external examiner and has reviewed research grants for AHRC, EPSRC, BUPA Foundation and SPARC.