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Kelly Mackinnon

Associate Professor

Department: Architecture and Built Environment

Kelly MacKinnon is an award-winning Architect, Associate Professor in Architecture at ϲ. She has over 20 years experience of the education sector and governance within a university setting. As an industry-facing architect-academic, she contributes and leads on practice-based research and teaching through live projects in the region and beyond.

Kelly is also the Co-Director of Cultural Partnerships at ϲ; a cross-faculty set of responsibilities collaborating with various cultural partners, charities, and local authorities. She leads and supports the university strategically with their cultural partnership portfolio working with partners such as the Venice Biennale, Live Theatre, North East Museums, New Writing North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. She has led on various projects with regional and cultural partners with the aim of providing opportunities for local communities, regional economies, and the wider region.

Kelly has an international reputation in Architecture with an advisory role to the Architects Registration Board. She has externally examined at several universities nationally and works with English Heritage as a critical friend on their National Blue Plaques scheme. Kelly also sits on the advisory panel for three local authorities and their corresponding Creative and Cultural Zone projects and has led on the Venice Biennale Fellowship Scheme in partnership with the British Council.

Kelly is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), member of the RIBA Validation Panel and has taught at various institutions including: ϲ, Strathclyde University, Glasgow School of Art. She has acted as external examiner to the undergraduate degrees in architecture at Birmingham City university and the University of Strathclyde, and the postgraduate degree in architecture at the University of Kent.

Working at the intersection of academia and industry, Kelly’s teaching, research and practice spans interests in design, cultural heritage and adaptive re-use, collaborative practice and in architecture education. Her research, teaching and practice combine interests in working with young people and children – who regularly become a missing voice in design processes and community participation when discussing the future of their built environment.

Kelly Mackinnon

  • Thomas Billington The role of the client in Arts, Heritage, and Cultural construction projects Start Date: 01/10/2024
  • Laura McClorey Belfast Stories: A Case Study for Youth Engagement within a Cultural Building Project Start Date: 01/10/2023

  • HEFC June 28 2018
  • HEFC February 27 2015
  • Teaching & Learning PCAPL October 11 2007
  • Architecture PGDip January 01 2001
  • Architecture BArch September 01 1997
  • Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2015
  • Senior Fellow (SFHEA), Higher Education Academy (HEA) SFHEA 2018
  • Architect Architects Registration Board (ARB) 2007
  • Associate Member Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) 2007


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