BEGIN seminar – Dr Jiayi Jin and Dr Ayse Ozbil Torun
Date: Tuesday, 2nd of June 2026, at 14:00 (UK Time)
Location- Online only (MS Teams).
Designing with Urban Ecologies: Spatial Analysis and Participatory More-than-Human Design with Tyne Kittiwakes
Abstract:
As climate change, urbanisation, biodiversity loss, and environmental justice become increasingly urgent concerns, more-than-human approaches have emerged as a significant area of research within urban studies, architecture, and planning. Challenging human-centred models of urban development, this growing body of work calls for new ways of understanding cities as shared environments shaped by complex relationships between human and nonhuman actors.
This talk explores what it means, in practice, to design with rather than for urban nonhuman life through the case of the Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) colony along the River Tyne in Newcastle-Gateshead, UK. As home to the world’s most inland-nesting kittiwake population, the Tyne offers a unique lens through which to examine the assumptions embedded within urban design, governance, and multispecies coexistence.
Drawing on findings from the AHRC-funded project Navigating Urban Ecologies, the presentation combines spatial analytics and co-creative research methods to investigate the environmental and socio-spatial conditions that both support and constrain urban ecological systems. The talk examines how environmental and socio-spatial conditions shape human–wildlife relationships in post-industrial waterfront environments, and how spatial analytics and participatory methods can help embed more-than-human perspectives within urban design and planning practice. By positioning kittiwakes as active participants in the urban landscape, the research highlights new possibilities for understanding ecological agency, coexistence, and regenerative urban futures.
Recording:
Bio:
Dr Jiayi Jin is an Assistant Professor in Architecture and Built Environment at Northumbria University, UK. Her interdisciplinary research investigates spatial inequality and socio-ecological relationships within post-industrial and transitional urban environments. She is the Principal Investigator of Navigating Urban Ecologies, a project exploring human–wildlife coexistence through the study of urban kittiwakes in dense urban contexts. Her broader work focuses on developing transferable socio-ecological modelling frameworks for urban river corridors and post-industrial landscapes, with particular attention to the regeneration of the River Tyne waterfront.
Dr Ayse Ozbil Torun is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at Northumbria University, UK. She is an architect by training with expertise in spatial modelling and urban form analysis to help tackle challenging questions in sustainability and human wellbeing. In particular, she has expertise in pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood and street design strategies, enhancing active transportation and public health and well-being in urban areas. Since 2014 she has acted as PI/Co-I on 6 research grants, which focused on the investigation of the effects of urban forms on walkability, with a focus on place attachment, outdoor play, active travel, neighbourhood quality and health and wellbeing.
