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Dr Marcella Ucci
Associate Professor
Bartlett School Env, Energy & Resources
Faculty of the Built Environment
- Joined UCL
- 7th Jan 2004
Research summary
Dr Ucci’s research addresses how buildings should be designed, upgraded and managed in order to support health and wellbeing, tackle inequalities and reduce environmental impacts. She has expertise of mixed methods research, including building performance monitoring and modelling, evaluation of indoor air quality such as moisture and dampness, active design, and community engagement. She has successfully supervised several Master’s and PhD students.
She is one of the Housing theme leads for the ActEarly project, awarded £6.6 million by UKPRP and led by Prof John Wright, which will provide research-ready, people-powered and data-linked test beds to co-produce, implement and evaluate novel early life interventions to prevent disease and reduce inequalities. The ActEarly City Collaboratory approach aims to provide a whole system environment where the public, scientists, policy leaders and practitioners work with each other to develop and upstream prevention solutions to promote a healthier, fairer future for children living in deprived areas. The project focuses specifically on two test beds: Bradford in Yorkshire and London’s Tower Hamlets. She is also Co-Investigator of the project "Families in Tower Hamlets: impacts of COVID-19", and of the CHAMPIONS project focusing on the wellbeing of children in temporary accommodation during the COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.championsproject.co.uk/).
Dr Ucci was Co-Investigator in the ‘Active Buildings’ research project, funded by the School for Public Health Research, through the NIHR, National Institute for Health Research. Uniquely the project brought together health behaviour specialists in the UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Heath, with built environment specialists in the UCL’s Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. The project evaluates the impact of office building’s layout on office workers’ physical activity and sedentary behaviour levels in the workplace. Dr Ucci was also Co-Investigator of the network project Welline (Wellbeing and the Indoor Environment), funded by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing programme managed by the Medical Research Council. Wellline addresses how the indoor environment influences chronic disorders affecting the musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary and nervous systems, amongst the most prevalent conditions found in the older population. She was also the UCL investigator for the Building Banter project, a unique collaboration between industry and academics, funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It aims to achieve greater energy efficiency in non-domestic buildings through user-centered design. Dr Ucci also co-investigated the Heating and Obesity Trends project (HOT), in collaboration with the UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and funded by the UCL Crucible Centre.
Previously, Dr Ucci worked on a two-year EPSRC funded research on the environmental control of house dust mites, and on a research project for the ODPM Building Regulations Division (under the Buildings Operational Performance Framework). The project contributed to the development of the Building Regulations (England and Wales), in particular Part F and L which deal with ventilation and energy.
Teaching summary
With broad, long-running expertise in postgraduate teaching in the fields of environment design and engineering, facility management and health/wellbeing in buildings, Dr Ucci has led the development and launch of the new MSc Health, Wellbeing and Sustainable Buildings, of which she was Course Director between 2017 and 2019. Within this programme, she leads the module ‘Indoor Air Quality in Buildings’ and previously also the module ‘Health, Comfort and Wellbeing in the Built Environment’, which is also part of the MSc in ‘Environmental Design and Engineering’. Previously, she was Lecturer in Facility and Environment Management in the same Department, for the 'Environment Management and Sustainability' module of the MSc in Facility and Environment Management.
Education
- Other Postgraduate qualification (including professional), ATQ02 - Recognised by the HEA as an Associate Fellow | 2009
- University College London
- Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 2007
- Universita degli Studi di Napoli - Federico II
- First Degree, Bachelor of Arts | 2003
- University College London
- Other higher degree, Master of Science | 2003
Biography
Dr Marcella Ucci is Associate Professor in Environmental and Healthy Buildings at the Bartlett's UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London (UK).
She graduated in architecture from the University of Naples (Italy), and then obtained an MSc in Environmental Design and Engineering, and a PhD in indoor air quality and modelling – both from the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL.
She researches how buildings should be designed, upgraded and managed in order to support health and wellbeing, tackle inequalities and reduce environmental impacts. Her expertise includes building performance monitoring and modelling, evaluation of indoor air quality, active design, and community engagement.
She has led the development and launch of the new MSc Health, Wellbeing and Sustainable Buildings, of which she was Course Director between 2017 and 2019.
Dr Ucci is Secretary (Chair between 2012-2017) of the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG) - a multidisciplinary network of academics, policy-makers and industry - set up to co-ordinate and provide a focus for UK activity concerned with indoor environments, health and well-being. She was also a Committee member of the Sustainability Special Interest Group at the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) between 2010 and 2016. Dr Ucci is on the Editorial Board of 'Architectural Science Review', and of 'Indoor and Built Environment' (previously Deputy Editor). She is also member of the Executive Committee of the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change. She has been invited to give oral evidence at All Party Parliamentary Groups enquiries (APPG Healthy Homes and Buildings; APPG Design and Innovation), and is a member of the RCPCH Working Group on Indoor Air Quality and Children’s Health.