Prf Theodore Zamenopoulos

Professional biography

I am a Professor of Citizen-led Design at the Open University. I trained and worked as a professional architect in Greece. I hold a PhD in Architecture from UCL, where I studied at the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies and the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.

I first joined the Open University as a research fellow in 2005, working on UK and EU funded research projects focused on design research, design cognition, complexity research and education.

Research interests

My expertise is primarily focused on the conditions that enable citizens, communities and organisations to design and develop innovations in response to societal challenges. 

I am particularly interested in the role of place — and how the social, cultural, and material resources that make up a place come together to shape our capacity to address challenges through design. Conversely, I am also interested in the development of social innovations aimed at shaping places themselves, with a focus on areas such as wellbeing, social inclusion, and sustainable development.

My research has been primarily funded by UK research councils, particularly the AHRC and ESRC. A large part of these research grants is grounded in practical, real-world projects — aimed at developing insights, hands-on approaches, and innovations to unlock design capabilities in place-based and social innovation. I have collaborated with organisations across the third, public, and private sectors to address a wide range of societal and environmental challenges. I have also been working on the development of spaces and community innovation hubs that foster collaborative economies between people and organisations, helping to enhance design capabilities for innovation.

In addition, my research projects include empirical studies on the design capabilities of individuals and social groups, including studies on design cognition using brain imaging (fMRI) and computational or logical–mathematical investigations of design.

Teaching interests

I am Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I co-led the development of a strategic investment case for a new undergraduate degree — the Bachelor of Design (BDes): Design for People, Places and Planet (2021) — and am part of the leadership team overseeing its production (2021–2028). I am also sharing the production of the new module T240: Design for impact and co-chair the T290: Design projects

I have served as the production and presentation module chair for T217: Design Essentials, and co-chair for the production of T218: Design for Engineers.

Previously, I chaired T211: Design and Designing and was a member of the award board for U101: Design Thinking.

I also contributed to T229: Mechanical Engineering: Heat and Flow, as an author providing input on collaborative design

Research projects

Prototyping Community Innovation Hubs

Theo Zamenopoulos and Katerina Alexiou in the School of Engineering and Innovation are the lead academics in an Open Societal Challenges Challenge Us! Project established in collaboration with Fidele Mutwarasibo from the OU Business School, Alex Cole of TIN Ventures, the MK Community Foundation, and MK Ethnic Business Community. The project aims to empower ethnic minority businesses (EMBs) in Milton Keynes and beyond by providing vital support to foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and inclusive innovation through a prototype community innovation hub.

Wise connections: co-designing places to support creative ageing

This project focussed on creative ageing is funded by the UKRI health ageing catalyst awards delivered in partnership with Zinc. The project aim is to create innovations for creative ageing: a social venture (a partnership) that aims to create opportunities to age creatively within our homes, but also public & professional spaces Wise Connections is a collaboration between the Open University (OU), Local Learning, Alive, and the Age of Creativity network (AgeUK Oxfordshire). The project builds on previous research projects where we worked with older people across different contexts, with an emphasis on supporting these people to engage creatively in shaping their environment and life. The academics from the OU involved are Theodore Zamenopoulos, Professor of Citizen-led Design, Katerina Alexiou, Senior Lecturer in Design and Tot Foster, Research Associate. The partners are: Ruth Myers and Pete Insole (Local Learning), Farrell Renowden (AgeUK Oxfordshire and the Age of Creativity network) and Georgina Densley (Alive).​​ [More information]

Cross-pollination: growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking

Cross-pollination was one of nine knowledge exchange projects funded in January 2022 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), under a programme designed to support the cultural and social regeneration of places around the UK and capture the value and contribution of the arts and humanities research to local regeneration and development. The aim of the project is to grow capacity for cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking through the use of a creative approach called ‘cross-pollination’. The project is led by Katerina Alexiou, Theo Zamenopoulos and Vera Hale with the Glass-House Community Led Design and local partners in England, Scotland and Wales. [More information]

Incubating civic leadership

Incubating Civic Leadership (ICL) is a knowledge exchange project, funded through Research England’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) allocation to the Open University. ICL is a collaboration between the Open University, The Glass-House Community Led Design and Knowle West Media Centre. The aim of the project is to develop and test a model for the operation of a Civic Leadership Incubator that will help inform, inspire, and catalyse people and organisations to work together and to convert ideas and conversations into collaborative, interdisciplinary and cross-sector projects. As part of project activities, the ICL team worked with other partners in two pilot local projects: London Borough of Redbridge and Muslimah Sports Association in East London, and the Filwood Broadway Working Group of the Knowle West Alliance in Bristol. [More information]

Empowering Design Practices: historic places of worship as catalysts for connecting communities

Empowering Design Practices is a large £1.5m project funded by AHRC under the Connected Communities and Design Highlight Notice. The project aims to investigate how community-led design (CLD) practices apply in the case of historic places of worship and to develop new mechanisms and processes to empower communities and to facilitate and evaluate good practice. Over fine years the project will offer support to over 30 communities involved in adaptation and maintenance of historic places of worship of different faiths and denominations. In parallel it will deliver a training program for design students, professionals and communities in order to build national capacity for research by design. The project is led by Theodore Zamenopoulos and Katerina Alexiou and is a collaborative partnership between the Open University and organisations outside the Higher Education sector including English Heritage, the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, Heritage Lottery Fund, and The Glass-House Community Led Design. [More information]

Co-designing Asset Mapping: Comparative Approaches

The aim of this project is to develop a network of community-academic partnerships engaged in asset mapping approaches, in order to enable collaborative reflections and evaluations of current and recent projects, and to develop new synergies for learning and critical reflection. The project is funded by AHRC under the Connected Communities programme and involves OU academics Giota Alevizou (PI), Katerina Alexiou and Theodore Zamenopoulos as well as academics from 4 other universities: Ms Greene (RCA), Prof Kelemen  (Keele University), Dr Phillips (Leicester University) and Dr Lam (Brunel University). The project has UK and International community partners: The Glass-House Community Led Design and The New Vic Theatre and Atenistas and engages with a variety of different community groups and experts. [More information]

Rules of Thumb: An Investigation into the Potential of Contextual transportation in Social Design

This project was an experiment in ‘contextual transposition’: The idea of ‘hitching a ride’ in automobility systems was transposed in new areas as a design approach for social design. Housing was chosen as a context, because it is different from transport and characterised by significant inequalities. The key research questions were: To what extent is it possible to transpose hitchhiking knowledge, methods and practices into other contexts? Does such a transposition allow individuals or organisations to exploit existent system affordances in new and productive ways? The project was funded by AHRC and included the following academics: Dr. Damon Taylor (as PI from Brighton University), Dr Theo Zamenopoulos (The Open University), Dr. Lesley Murray (Brighton University), Professor Monika Buscher (Lancaster University) Professor Chris Speed (Edinburgh University. It also included non academic partners: The Glass-House Community Led Design [More information]

Starting from Values: Evaluating Intangible Legacies

This project is funded under a call for developing different ways of investigating the legacy of AHRC Connected Communities projects. The aim is to co-develop and apply creative ways of identifying, evaluating and enhancing intangible, values-related aspects of project legacies. The project is led by Prof Marie Harder at Brighton University and involves OU academics Katerina Alexiou and Theodore Zamenopoulos as well as a number of other academic and non-academic institutions. [More information]

Scaling up Co-design Research and Practice

This project focuses on organisations that support communities through creative co-design activities (including media, technology, product design and place-making). The aim is to identify challenges and opportunities for unleashing and building upon the intrinsic capacities of community-academic partnerships involved in co-design in order to: increase the impact of their practice; extend reach; and make more sustainable and resilient communities. Our core tools are: cross-pollination activities, fostering ambassadors of co-design practice, design hacklabs and online collaborative technologies. The project is led by OU academics Theodore Zamenopoulos and  Katerina Alexiou in collaboration with Prof Andy Dearden, Sheffield Hallam; Dr Basayawan Lam, Brunel University; Prof Ann Light, Northumbria University and Community Partners: The Glass-House Community Led Design, Blackwood Foundation, Fossbox, Flossie, Silent Cities, Voluntary Action Westminster, Hannah Goraya. The project is funded by AHRC under the Connected Communities programme. [More information]

Unearth Hidden Assets through Community Co-design and Co-production

This project explored how co-design and co-production could support asset-based community development. Increasingly, community developments have shifted toward an ‘asset-based’ approach, which concentrates on uncovering and mobilising existing assets in a community to create new opportunities. The study experimented with different co-design techniques to investigate how they could help identify unrecognised assets. The project was funded by AHRC and included the following academics: Dr Aom Lam (as PI -Brunel University), Theo Zamenopoulos (The Open University), Mihaela Keleman (Keele University) Martin Phillips (University of Leicester).It also included non-academic partners: The Glass-House Community Led Design, Wiltshire Council, Alison Gilchrist, Community Development Consultant [More information]

Bridging the Gap between Academic Theory and Community Relevance: Fresh Insights from American Pragmatism

The ‘Bridging the gap’ project was an interdisciplinary collaboration based around the delivery of two main program of activities: a two-day networking/experiential workshop hosted by Keele University and the New Vic Theatre in June 2013 and a one week field trip to the Minami Sanriku, Japan, held in November 2013. The work we have done with various communities in Stoke on Trent and Minami Sanriku has unearthed interesting stories about how communities respond to different types of crises as well as tested our assumptions about collaboration, challenged our taken for granted ways of working and allowed us to explore theory and practice in new, exciting ways. The project was funded by AHRC and included academics: Prof Kelemen (as PI from Keele University), Theo Zameonopouls (The Open University), Busyawam Lam (Brunel University), Graham Crow (Edinburgh University) and Seinan Gakuin (University in Japan). It also included non-academic partners: New Vic Borderlines, The Glass-House Community Led Design and Mondo Challenge Foundation [More information]

Media, Community and the Creative Citizen

‘Creative Citizens’ is a large £1.4m project funded by AHRC and EPSRC under the Connected Community and Digital Economy programmes. The project involves academics from University of West of England, Cardiff University, Royal College of Art, Birmingham University, and Birmingham City University as well as a number of public and third sector organisations. The aim of the research is to understand the changing landscape of digital and physical media and how they can be used to transform communities and support creative citizenship. The Open University team (Katerina Alexiou, Theodore Zamenopoulos and Giota Alevizou) focusses on ‘community-led design’, which will establish the value of creative citizens engaged in designing their own communities including public spaces, community facilities, housing or neighbourhood regeneration.

Valuing Community-Led Design

Valuing Community-Led Design is a research project that aims to collate, articulate and disseminate evidence about the value of community-led design and bring the relevant stakeholders together to share good practice and form a research agenda for the future. It is funded by AHRC under the Connected Communities programme. [more information]

The Role of Complexity in the Creative Economy: connecting people, ideas and practice

An AHRC funded study as part of the Connected Communities Programme. This one year project starting on May 2011 aims to explore how complexity theory and its methodological approaches can help in providing a better understanding of the creative economy as a field of research. Complexity theory offers us the possibility to explore and understand the interconnections across the different levels of understanding of the creative economy (micro, meso and macro) as well as the possibility to integrate different disciplinary understandings and findings. The project is in collaboration with Roberta Comunian (Kent University) and Caroline Chapain (Birmingham University). [More information]

ARCHI21

The project entitled ‘Architectural and design based education and practice through content & language integrated learning using immersive virtual environments for 21st century skills’ (or ARCHI21 for short) is funded by EU Lifelong Learning programme (Key Activity 2: Languages) for two years starting in November 2010. The project involves six EU partner universities and aims to explore the application of new technologies to language learning and teaching in design – particularly architecture education. Other co-investigators of the OU team are Steve Garner, Theo Zamenopoulos, Georgy Holden, and Nicole Schadewitz.

Study on the neurological basis of design cognition

A study funded initially by the Embracing Complexity in Design project and carried out in collaboration with cognitive neuroscientists from UCL and Goldsmiths College. It is part of a larger research programme aimed at understanding the neurological basis of individual and social cognition, using advanced neuro-imaging techniques like fMRI and EEG. The project involves Katerina Alexiou, Theodore Zamenopoulos, Jeff Johnson, Sam Gilbert (UCL), Joydeep Bhattacharya (Goldsmiths College). See publications for more details.

Embracing Complexity in Design

Embracing Complexity in Design (ECiD for short) is a research project funded by EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) under the Designing for the 21st Century initiative. The project is funded for 18 months starting from October 2006 and continues the work of a research cluster with the same name funded in the previous year. The objective of ECiD is to understand the part played by complexity science in design, and increasingly the potential for design to play a major role in the emerging science of complex systems. 

Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems

The Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems (ONCE-CS) is a project funded by the European Commission under FP6. The purpose of ONCE-CS is to strengthen European research in complex systems, and to assist people in business and public services to use the new science effectively. After ONCE-CS ends it will hand over to the Complex Systems Society to continue the work of servicing the complex systems community.

Impact and engagement

I have been involved in many public and community engagement activities. Some examples are included below:

Places of Connection at Tate Exchange

Design academics took part in the Who Are We? Programme at Tate Exchange in 2018 run by Counterpoint Arts and the Open University in in association with Stance Podcast and the University of York. Places of Connection was a drop-in workshop open to the public which invited members of the public to reflect on the everyday spaces in our communities where we feel a sense of welcome, belonging and connection. Participants built a wall of connected representations celebrating the social, faith and cultural spaces that connect communities, by creating and sharing their ideas, stories and experiences. Organised in collaboration with The Glass-House Community Led Design.

Read more about the Places for Connection workshop here.

Prototyping Utopias public engagement project

The Prototyping Utopias public engagement project was funded by AHRC in 2016 as part of their Connected Communities Research Festival inspired by the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia. The project delivered two open day events in Bow on the 30th of April and the 21st of May 2016. The first was focussed on ‘dreaming’ and the second on ‘prototyping’. You can view a film about these events here: vimeo.com

The project was also part of a major public exhibition, the AHRC’s Utopia Fair at Somerset House in central London, between 24th and 26th June 2016, which reached over 10,000 visitors.

External collaborations

In collaboration with Katerina Alexiou, I co-developed a strategic partnership with The Glass-House Community Led Design a national charity that supports communities, organisations and networks to work collaboratively on the design of buildings, open spaces, homes and neighbourhoods. The partnership has secured funding for over 13 collaborative research projects and generated resources that are of practical use to professional designers, architects, planners and community development officers, as well as community based groups and organisations and individuals with an interest in collaborative design and creative civic action.

Some of the external organisations they have worked with around the themes of collaborative design and social innovation include: National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, Blackwood Foundation, Bow Arts, Bromley by Bow Centre, Poplar Harca, Fossbox, London Community Housing Cooperative, the Greater London Authority, New Vic Borderlines, Social Farms & Gardens (Confederation of City Farms and Community Gardens), Knowle West Media Centre, Knowle West Alliance, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, London Borough of Redbridge among others.