Dr Pooja Shah

Experience

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  WEARS LONDON LIMITED

  Sept 2015 - Jan 2016

  Freelance Interior Designer

  This job demanded me to redesign a temporary pop-up store for a clothing boutique in Greenwich market to become a more permanent store. The boutique called ‘Wears London’ was very exclusive, as it allowed small scale designers and artists to exhibit their products/work to sell. To come up with a design, I was required to think about each display unit as well as overall space arrangements, because the store held strong identities of different artists/practitioners. I was also demanded to survey five core markets of london in order to understand how can I brand a store with items circulating every month! It was an exciting project, it gave me insights onto customer’s psychology and manipulation of space. Show less

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  Ghoricha Associates

  Jan 2016 - Aug 2017

  Interior Designer

  I worked as a principal design member on one of the interior projects called ‘Hungry Puppets’. The project was a medium size fine dine restaurant in Gandhinagar, India. The theme of this restaurant was fusion of Indo-western culture. My work here, was to discuss the concept and strategise execution process with different contractors and suppliers. I was given 2 interns who worked with me to produce a set of detail and working drawings. I was also asked to do a market survey on traditional puppets. This entire journey of designing and seeing it executed on site was really enjoyable. I learnt a great deal on how to work design process on paper is translated onto the site. Show less

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  Design Development Academy

  Jan 2016 - Jun 2017

  Visiting Lecturer

  DDA was affiliated with UK Board and Education. Having studied in the UK at the University of Portsmouth, I returned and taught subjects like: Contextual Influence in Art & Design (yr1), Cultural Referencing in Art & Design (Yr 2), Ceramic design (yr2), Glass design (yr3). Teaching at DDA was a unique experience, as I was faced with day-to-day problems with coalescing these two different education systems. For instance, in the UK education, which I had acquired demanded independent studies and was focussed onto the practicality of the design; whereas, Indian education which I had acquired during my HND demanded focus onto the details and practicality of the design. Hence, I had to balance both the aspects keeping in mind that students who will finish their studies will most likely work in Indian market. Show less

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  SSE Enterprise

  Oct 2018 - Sept 2020

  Service support advisor

  My role involved finding technical solutions for the problems that on-site engineers whilst installing Smart Electric and Gas Meters (Smets 2). I worked with IT, HR and other clerical departments to come up with tailored solutions suitable for a particular problem. This job although may seem out of my field, it deeply helped me polish my inter-personal communication, intellectual and out-of-box thinking keeping me on my toes! I gained excellent soft and transferable skills.

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  JACOB HASHIMOTO LLC

  Jun 2019 - Aug 2019

  Summer Intern

  During my time as an intern at Jacob Hashimoto Studio, the studio team welcomed me warmly. At the time, as they were busy preparing for a site specific commission for the Willis Tower in Chicago, I was allowed to work with a team. I got hands-on experiences doing different tasks such as prepping the kites with manual collaging, colouring kites, tying the kites in frames according to the drawings provided and material testing. Although I was tying the kites in a particular layer, I was challenged to understand plans/sections/elevation drawings for the site in 6 layer. Meanwhile I also got a chance to speak with the artist, Jacob Hashimoto to pick his brains on various subjects such as: how he designs and what were the steps? Additionally, I improved my communication skills as the studio team was a mix of people coming from different disciplines, gaining different perspectives to one problem. I had some amazing discussions by sharing of ideas and disciplinary opinions. This really helped me in outlining my Ph.D, as I interned in the very initial stage of my Ph.D. Show less

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  University of Portsmouth

  Sept 2020 - Jan 2021

  Lecturer in Interior Architecture

  I taught Dissertation unit for 3rd year undergraduate Interior Architecture students at the University of Portsmouth. The opportunity included close supervision on their process via suggesting reading materials, various writing tasks, peer discussions and feedback sessions. It also helped me in my autoethnographic research, as while suggesting the students mini writing retreats, I benefitted doing the same for my PhD as well. Apart from that, I chaired to find creative writing strategies with students to overcome writer’s bloc and enabling them to achieve better level writing dissertation. Show less

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  De Montfort University

  Sept 2023 - now

  Lecturer in Interior Design