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School of Art and Design

Academic Staff



Tracey Dalton

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Lecturer

Email: tracey.dalton@tudublin.ie

Tel: +353 1 2205878

Tracey Dalton is a design lecturer, and 3rd year course co-ordinator, on the TU975 BA Interior Design; and the TU382 Masters in Interior Design (since 2022), at Dublin School of Art and Design, TU Dublin since 2013. She has also lectured on the BA Visual Merchandising. Tracey graduated from the BA Environmental Design at DIT (now TU Dublin) in 1996. She completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Graphic Reproduction Technology with DIT, Bolton St. campus, in 1998, going on to pursue a career in commercial interior design practice with award winning interior design and architectural firms. She has worked extensively on projects within the hospitality design sector i.e. pubs, restaurants, night clubs, cinemas, golf clubs etc. varying from traditional to modern, conservative to innovative, along with retail and corporate sector projects, and domestic interiors also. This involved project managing various projects over this time, from feasibility stage, planning drawings, design concept development and presentation, construction drawings, statutory issues, site visits, through to practical completion, managing junior designers on various projects. Tracey’s long-term connections in the Irish interior design sector have fostered professional and educational links between Dublin School of Art and Design and other design colleges, such as Munster Technological University, Griffith College Dublin, Cholaiste Dulaigh, and Pearse College. Tracey has also been called upon as an expert judge in the field for the National Fitout Awards and the Institute of Designers of Ireland graduate awards.

Tracey has been lecturing in design since 2008, previously being a lecturer and Interior Design course co-ordinator in Dublin Institute of Design on the BTEC level 6 HND in 3D Design; Level 8 BA Hons. Degree in Interior Design with University of South Wales (2011-15) and the QQI BA Interior Design Level 7 degree.

Tracey has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Third Level Teaching & Learning (2011) and an MSc eLearning (2015) from DIT(now TU Dublin)  , with her Masters research focussing on AutoCAD screen-casting for third level Interior Design, publishing in the ‘Irish Journal of Academic Practice’ on this subject. Tracey is a PhD candidate with Kingston University, London. Her research concerns the phenomenon of the Irish Pub for export as a commodity, focussing on the ‘Guinness Irish Pub Concept’, created in 1991 by Guinness plc and McNally Design/Irish Pub Company, where Tracey worked in interior design practice from 7 years.  

Tracey also has a special interest in the ‘Students Learning with Communities’ programme at TU Dublin, with these projects being undertaken annually with first year BA Interior Design students since 2013. These include ‘StepByStep’ Youth education support, St.John of God’s, Islandbridge, Eve Enterprises/Tuiscint, Salvation Army, Crosscare, and St. Michael’s Parish Youth Project, Inchicore. Most recently she was the lead lecturer on an SLWC project involving ‘My Uni Life’, an RTE TV series (Series 2: Episode 2 and 7) This was televised and demonstrated a collaborative project between 1st year TU Dublin BA Interior Design students and Robert Emmett Community Development Project/South Inner City Community Development Association, Dublin 8. Filmed in February and March 2023, and produced by New Decade productions for RTE Television. She also has a special interest in Building Regulations and Universal Design, lecturing 3rd year students for entry to the Universal Design Grand Challenge Awards, in collaboration with the National Disability Authority. This has produced a Winner in Built Environment category in 2022 and shortlisted entries in 2020, 2023 and 2024.

Tracey is passionate about the benefits of convergent and divergent thinking within design, in education and for industry, concurring with Professor Bryan Lawson (2005) that ‘It is probably the designer who needs these two skills in the most equal proportions.’

 

Symposiums, seminars, publications, arts/culture community engagement & panels:

  • Dalton, Tracey. “Exporting the Irish Pub – An Interior Designer’s Perspective: 1990 to 2010” in The Irish Pub: Invention and Reinvention. Ed. Perry Share and Moonyoung Hong, Cork University Press, 2025.
  • Speaker: ‘Molly Malone’s Irish Pub, Lake Maggiore’, Reimagining Irishness through design of the exported Irish Pub, 1990-2009‘– TU Dublin Research Symposium, 4th June 2024.
  • Judge: IDI Awards – 2024.
  • Judge: National Fitout Awards 2021, 2022 and 2023.
  • Universal Design Grand Challenge Awards/National Disability Authority: Lecturer on the Universal Design module with 3rd years BA Interior Design students. Winner in Built Environment category: 2022. Shortlisted: 2020, 2023 and 2024.
  • Speaker: ‘The Guinness Irish Pub Concept’ – London Irish Centre, London – 20th July 2023.
  • Speaker: ‘Curated ‘Thrown Togetherness’: Festival of Research, Kingston School of Art, 20th June 2023.
  • Speaker: Curated ‘Thrown Togetherness’: Visual Merchandising in the Traditional Irish Pub’ : International Creative Display Conference,TU Dublin School of Art and Design, 15th June 2023.
  • ‘My Uni Life’ – RTE TV series – Episode 2 and 7 – Leading lecturer and coordinator on televised ‘Students Learning with Communities’ project between 1st year TU Dublin BA Interior Design students and Robert Emmett Community Development Project, Dublin 8. February / March 2023. Produced by New Decade productions for RTE Television.
  • Speaker: ‘The Guinness Irish Pub Concept – A Case Study’, Dorich House Museum Symposium, Kingston University, 9th May 2022.
  • Speaker: ‘Student as Producer’ Conference: Research engaged teaching, an institutional strategy. TU Dublin / Lincoln University, 17th Sept. 2020.
  • External interviewer - BTEC Professional Practice module: Cholaiste Dhulaigh CDFE, Raheny, Dublin 17. 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021.
  • Speaker: ‘The Guinness Irish Pub Concept – A Case Study’, Dorich House Museum Symposium, Kingston University, 30th January 2019.
  • Speaker: Counter Intelligences – A seminar on current research on Irish Pubs, their design and social life Dublin Institute of Technology, 15th November 2018.
  • Dalton, Tracey (2017) “Delivering Design Fundamentals using relevant Learning Theories in the delivery of an Interior Design project at Third Level”, Iterations: Issue 05, June 2017. 
  • Dublin Canvas 2021 and 2017
  • Guest Speaker: Students Learning with Communities Awards, DIT , 5th May 2017:‘Students Re-Designing Rooms with the Salvation Army staff/residents’(2017)
  • External interviewer - BTEC Professional Practice module: Cholaiste Dhulaigh CDFE, Raheny, Dublin 17. March 2017 to present.
  • DIT St. Patrick’s Day Pageant 2017 – Designer of one of the ‘Cubes’, team co-ordinator/organiser (2017).
  • 2014-16: Workshops and presentations on the MSc eLearning, LTTC, DIT Aungier St.
  • Dalton, Tracey (2016) "Can Post-Lecture CAD Screencasts Reduce Cognitive Load and Foster Self-directed Learning in First Year Interior Design?," Irish Journal of Academic Practice: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 4.
  • Showcase Speaker - ‘e-Portfolios in Ireland – What now? Where Next?’ - TU Dublin, Aungier St. 21st March 2016
  • ‘Crosscare Cafes’ (2014) – See Arrow@TU Dublin
  • DIT Summer School: Working with students on Community Links projects, June 2014.

 

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