Contact
Biography
Bernadette, also known as Bernardita, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, part of the Architecture, Culture & Tectonics Research group. She is the module convenor of 'Culture and Context in Practice' and supports several courses in the area of Architectural Humanities. She is the Deputy Course Director of the MArch Advanced Architecture Design. She is available for consultancies through the university and open to supervising PhD students in related research areas.
She has a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), a Master in Architecture and an Architectural degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, with teaching experience at those universities. Dr Devilat is also the co-founder of DLA Scan Architectural Studio, which has several designs built in Chile.
She is a member of professional associations, a peer-reviewer for the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment and a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College, UK. She has obtained funding and scholarships to carry out her research. Dr Devilat has been invited as a key and panellist speaker at international seminars and conferences, presented papers at international conferences, and published in journals and books.
She has led externally funded research projects as Principal Investigator, such as: 3D for Heritage India and EWAP Grant: 'Documenting the Heritage Churches of Chiloé: the record as a knowledge transfer for conservation', and also internally funded research projects.
In 2016, she created and led BScan, a 3D laser scanning teaching cluster at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, focusing on representation and digital preservation. From 2020 to 2023, she worked at the Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Global Heritage (CAUGH) at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), collaborating with the research project on the Hawara Pyramid and Labyrinth, Egypt and obtaining internal and external funding to lead research projects as Principal Investigator. She led 'Surveying Heritage Buildings In Ahmedabad, India: Empowering Local Action And Skills For Heritage Conservation', and 'Sustainable approaches for the conservation of built heritage at risk based on advanced recording technologies' funded by NTU. She also led: 'A sustainable re-construction method for seismic-prone heritage areas of India based on advanced recording technologies' phases 1 and 2, in collaboration with international partners, externally funded by AHRC/DCMS.
Expertise Summary
Her research includes novel ways of improving heritage intervention in seismic-prone settlements, which started after the 2005 earthquake in Tarapacá, Chile, when she co-founded the Tarapacá Project, building a Community Library; as a prototype. She developed housing strategies via her MA, contributing to her work at the Heritage Reconstruction Programme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development after the 2010 earthquake in Chile. In her PhD studies, she created inventive uses of technologies in response to the constant risk of destruction for three heritage areas in Chile affected by high-magnitude earthquakes in 2005 and 2010. Using terrestrial 3D laser scanning (LiDAR) and questionnaires, she introduced an in-depth understanding of contextual information-social, spatial and architectural-to improve post-earthquake recovery and resilience, and developed alternative re-construction design strategies.
She recently published a monograph with Routledge titled: Digital Records, Heritage Conservation and Post-earthquake Re-construction in Chile. This book proposes the concept of re-construction as an alternative methodology for built heritage affected in seismic areas. lt covers the conceptual aspects of rebuilding heritage, challenging reconstruction as a replica to physically preserve damaged built heritage by critically examining a context of constant change resulting from earthquakes - Chile. She advocates for the digital record to be an analytical basis for design, following the sustainable principles embedded in historical domestic architecture, facilitating damage assessments to repair affected heritage buildings instead of demolishing and building anew, and disaster risk management, relevant for other disaster-prone contexts.
She has expanded this work to seismic areas of Gujarat, India, with international collaborations through the 3D for Heritage India research project, and to monumental built heritage at risk through the EWAP Grant: 'Documenting the Heritage Churches of Chiloé: the record as a knowledge transfer for conservation', and other research projects, more details here.
Her visual work has been awarded twice and exhibited several times internationally, including two exhibitions related to her monograph displayed in London and Nottingham: https://bernadettedevilat.wordpress.com/.
In her architectural design work, she developed a remote architectural design for a house in Chile based on 3D laser scanning of the site, exploring this method as a new form of architectural representation, which has been exhibited and published. Dr Devilat has also used these methods to document several buildings in the UK while training students, exploring their role as digital versions that can last longer than the physical constructions, which is especially relevant for heritage at risk of damage or destruction, such as in the case of earthquakes.
Having all the 3D equipment and software available at the University of Nottingham, she is available for consultancies on 3D digital technologies applied to built heritage documentation, disaster risk management, pre and post-earthquake re-construction plans of heritage areas, sustainable architectural design based on 3D point-clouds of existing buildings and sites, in collaboration with experts at the university, as well as developing specific training courses for institutions in these areas.
Media Summary:
2024: Interview in 'Faculti'. Available here: https://faculti.net/advanced-recording-technologies-for-post-earthquake-damage-assessment-in-chile/
2023: Documentary in 'Pasaporte Ciencia' TV programme. Canal 13 cable. Santiago, Chile. Zeta Producciones. Aired on Chilean open television on the 12th of August 2023. This is a series of 8 episodes featuring 16 Chilean researchers doing science all over the world. Her episode features previous PhD research in Chile and research at NTU in India is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgpdb3ojWj0 (In Spanish) With: Felipe Lanuza.
2023: Interviewed on the Notts today TV show from NottsTV, available here: https://nottstv.com/programme/notts-today-thursday-27th-april/
2023: Selected to participate in NTU campaign: 'Re-searchers Re-vealed', available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1pTKtvxQtQ, aiming to disseminate to the general public current research at NTU addressing global challenges.
2016: 'Walk Around The British Pavilion'. British Council website . March 24th 2016.
2014: Enredados. Chapter 20, TV programme. Interview with the coordinators of ChileGlobal UK in Encuentros ChileGlobal 2014 Conference. Hotel W. Canal 13 cable. Santiago, Chile. 15th December 2014. With: Xaviera González-Wegener. By Paulina Hidalgo.
2011: 'To rebuild in silence'. Interviews conducted with 5 outstanding architects in the reconstruction process 1 year after the earthquake of February 27th, 2010. In: Housing and Decoration Magazine. El Mercurio Newspaper. Santiago, Chile. February 26th 2011. Page 30.
2006: Tarapacá Project in 'Flor de País' TV programme. Canal 13 cable. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile. Aired: Sunday 24th December 2006. With: Verónica Illanes.
Teaching Summary
Module convenor:
ABEE4053: Culture and Context in Practice
Supporting lecturer at:
ABEE4114: Design Thesis Project
ABEE1006: Architectural Humanities 1
ABEE4002: MArch Dissertation
Research Summary
2022-2025: External Research Grant: Documenting the heritage churches of Chiloé: the record as a knowledge transfer for conservation, a grant from the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme (EWAP),… read more
Recent Publications
DEVILAT LOUSTALOT, BERNADETTE M., LANUZA, FELIPE, KANJI, REPAUL, DESAI, JIGNA, MANE, MRUDULA, PITHAWALLA, ZEUS, SINGH, ADITYA and ACHARYA, MAHAVIR, 2022. A framework for earthquake assessment, re-construction and risk mitigation of buildings in historical settlements of Gujarat using advanced recording technologies
Current Research
2022-2025: External Research Grant: Documenting the heritage churches of Chiloé: the record as a knowledge transfer for conservation, a grant from the Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme (EWAP), Oxford Brookes University, funded by Arcadia - a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.' Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Dr Felipe Lanuza (Research Fellow) University of Nottingham; Dr Umberto Bonomo (collaborator) & Santiago Bernales (Research Assistant), Centro del Patrimonio Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CENPUC); Natalia Cruz (collaborator), Fundación Iglesias de Chiloé and Dr Lorenzo Berg (collaborator), Universidad de Chile. October 2022 to March 2025.
2025: Knowledge Exchange and Impact Research Grant: 'Digital Records, Heritage Conservation and Post-earthquake Re-construction in Chile'. University of Nottingham. Dr B. Devilat (PI). March to June 2025 (internal).
2025: Institute for Policy and Engagement Research Grant: 'Exploring Policy Implementation of a Sustainable Re-construction Framework for Seismic-prone Heritage Areas of Gujarat India'. University of Nottingham. Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Dr Felipe Lanuza (Co-I), University of Nottingham; and the Gujarat Institute for Disaster Management (GIDM) as Project Partner. November 24 to June 2025 (internal).
2025: International Research Collaboration Grant: 'Dissemination and applicability of a sustainable re-construction framework for seismic heritage areas of Gujarat, India'. University of Nottingham. Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Dr Felipe Lanuza (Co-I), University of Nottingham; and the Gujarat Institute for Disaster Management (GIDM) as Project Partner. November 2024 to March 2025 (internal).
Past Research
2023-2024: External Research Grant: 'Applicability and scalability of a sustainable re-construction framework for seismic-prone heritage areas of Gujarat, India', funded via the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) under the joint call: AHRC -DCMS Partnership on Global Cultural Heritages and the Challenges of Natural Disasters and Climate Change: 2022 Follow-on Funding Call. Project Reference: AH/X006832/1. Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Dr Felipe Lanuza (Co-I), University of Nottingham; Prof M. Gamal Abdelmonem (Co-I), CAUGH NTU; Dr Jigna Desai (Co-I), Mrudula Mane and Nigar Shaikh (Research Associates) and Saatvika Pancholi (Research Assistant) from the Center for Heritage Conservation CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CHC CRDF); and the Hunnarshala Foundation and the Gujarat Institute for Disaster Management (GIDM) as Project Partners. February 2023 to March 2024 www.3d4heritageindia.com
2023: Research Equipment Pipeline, 3D laser scanner equipment & computer cluster for the ACT Research Group. Faculty of Engineering. University of Nottingham. Dec 2023 to March 2024 (internal).
2023: Early Career Research Grant. Faculty of Engineering. University of Nottingham. May 2023 to July 2025 (internal).
2022: Research Grant: 'Sustainable approaches for the conservation of built heritage at risk based on advanced recording technologies', funded via the Talent Fund for Sustainable Futures, Nottingham Trent University. PI: B. Devilat. August 2022 to May 2023 (internal).
2021: External Research Grant: 'A sustainable re-construction method for seismic-prone heritage areas of India based on advanced recording technologies- Phase 2', funded via the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) under the joint call: Culture Heritage & Climate Change. Project Reference: AH/V00638X/1 (given as an extension of the previous project after an application for the cohort of funded projects). Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Professor M. Gamal Abdelmonem (Co-I), Dr Felipe Lanuza (RF), CAUGH NTU; Dr Jigna Desai (Co-I), Mrudula Mane (RA) and Zeus Pithawalla (RA), CHC CEPT Research and Development Foundation; and Dr Rohit Jigyasu (Co-I) and Sukrit Sen (RA), ICCROM. Project Partners: Hunnarshala Foundation and Gujarat Institute for Disaster Management (GIDM). December 2021 to July 2022.
2020: External Research Grant: 'A sustainable re-construction method for seismic-prone heritage areas of India based on advanced recording technologies', funded via the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) under the joint call: AHRC Urgency Grants highlight notice for Proposals Addressing Impacts on Cultural Heritage resulting from Natural Disasters and Climate Change. Project Reference: AH/V00638X/1. Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Professor M. Gamal Abdelmonem (Co-I), Dr Felipe Lanuza (RF), CAUGH NTU; Dr Jigna Desai (Co-I), CHC CEPT Research and Development Foundation; and Dr Rohit Jigyasu (Co-I), ICCROM. Project Partner: Hunnarshala Foundation. November 2020 to November 2021.
2020: Research Grant: 'Surveying heritage buildings in Ahmedabad, India: empowering local action and skills for heritage conservation', funded via the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) QR Research Funds NTU. Research Team: Dr B. Devilat (PI), Professor M. Gamal Abdelmonem (Co-I), CAUGH NTU; Dr Jigna Desai (Co-I) and Mrudula Mane (RA), CHC CEPT Research and Development Foundation, India. November 2020-July 2021 (internal).
Future Research
Digital technologies for the sustainable intervention and conservation of built heritage at risk.