Thomai is the Programme Leader in MDes Interior Design, with more than a decade of teaching experience at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Her research explores the interplay of identity, culture, and material expression, focusing on how objects and crafting practices shape our understanding of self, space, and belonging. She investigates the narratives embedded within everyday artefacts, examining how their creation and use contribute to cultural heritage and a sense of place.
Through an interdisciplinary approach, Thomai currently examines the psychological, cultural, and social dimensions of material culture, particularly in public and retail spaces. She explores the performative aspects of human interaction with objects, analysing how these interactions transform ordinary environments and influence spatial awareness. By interweaving analog and digital techniques, she continuously explores making processes that reveal new insights into objects’ identities and their impact on space.
Her pedagogical practice is deeply informed by her research, particularly her Master's in Education (MEd), where she examined factors that enhance student motivation and engagement in learning activities. This interest in interdisciplinarity and diverse methodologies is embedded in her Studio teaching, through the extra curricular project Visual Language Glossary.
Beyond academia, Thomai collaborates with SpaceKraft and contributes to the research cluster SHOPPING that hat looks into vacant spaces in the city of Glasgow and explores their potential of these overlooked places from the inside out.
During her Masters in Education (MEd), Thomai examined factors that enhance students' motivation and participation in learning activities and she embeds this research in the Studio. Throughout the studies, she developed an interest in interdisciplinarity and diverse methods/techniques of working in the Studio. Additionally, her teaching explores varied patterns of domestic living through theoretical and artefactual examples. She collaborates as SpaceKraft and through our ongoing project Memory Laundrette with an interest in promoting the cultural significance of the interior and its representation.
Objects | Making processes | Storytelling | Language | Cultural exchange
Programme Leader in MDes Interior Design
