Dr Magda Sibley

I am an architect with 25 years experience in full time academia, teaching and researching Architecture.

I have held permanent positions at various Russell Group UK Universities in the UK and joined the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University on 1 February 2019.

I have established an international reputation through my multidisciplinary research on Urban and Architectural Heritage in North African and the Middle Eastern cities with a focus on courtyard housing and public bathhouses. My research received funding form the EU, AHRC, EPSRC and British Academy, totalling almost half a million pounds of external funding.

I have successfully supervised more than 15 PhD students and examined more than 25 PhD theses in the UK, France, Egypt, Morocco and Malaysia. My recent research activities span History and Theory of Architecture and Environmental Design with a focus on energy transition in heritage settings. This has led to the development of my innovative design of a hybrid vernacular/high-tech component for lighting windowless spaces, shortlisted for the Clean-Tech Award.

My international research expertise on heritage public bathhouses in Mediterranean countries has led to my involvement as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the rehabilitation of two 14th Century heritage bathhouses in Old Jerusalem. I have also acted as a keynote speaker at various international conferences and workshops and have been a guest editor for the International Journal of Architectural Research and the Global Built Environment Review.

I recently completed an AHRC funded project on the forgotten Cairo Museums of the Belle Epoque era and received a Best Practice Award from the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in Cairo. This project has also been recognised by the AHRC as a successful example that has met the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for Quality Education.

I continue to enjoy research-led, innovative teaching in Humanities and Architectural Design studios to which I bring both interdisciplinary and international dimensions.

I am fluent in three languages: Arabic, French and English.