Sara Biscaya is an Associate Professor and the Director of Studies of Architecture at the University of Bath. She earned her architecture degree in Lisbon and has been working in UK higher education since 2013. With 24 years of experience in the field, Sara is recognized as a leader in architectural education. She has served on numerous national and international RIBA accreditation panels and is a member of the ARB validation panel. Recently, Sara has secured significant research grants (+200K) demonstrating her strong commitment to influencing positive societal and ecological urban transformation.

Dr. Biscaya is an experienced architect and urban designer, specializing in the production and coordination of information and spatial data visualization. Her research focuses on data applications in developing smart urban futures that integrate urban and rural socioeconomic and physical infrastructures to support communities, stakeholders, and decision-makers. She is currently the Principal Investigator for several projects, including AIRWISE - Air Quality Improvement and Resilience through Urban Morphology and Environment, British Council International Science Partnerships Fund Research Collaborations, (£100K, UK-ISPF), and BREATHE-Cities project, £60K, UK Evidence Fund, and Research and Innovation for Development in ASEAN (RIDA). Previous projects include Technology Enhanced Stakeholder Collaboration (ESCR) for supporting risk-sensitive sustainable urban development TRANSCEND (GCRF, £970K), Co-Network for Building Multi-Institutional Collaboration for Creating Resilient Environments and Communities against Climate Change, £200K, AHRC Design Accelerators: Design the Green Transition 2023, The value of design for sustainable housing – towards a smart place demonstrator £50K and URF 2023, Leading the way in Smart Home Research and Innovation programme £300K and Smart Infrastructure, £256K under the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP).

Sara is affiliated with the research Centre for Regenerative Design and Engineering for a Net Positive World (RENEW) at the University of Bath. She was previously associated with the Smart Urban Futures (SURF) research group at the University of Salford. Her research focuses on urban futures and ecological models for urban development in developing and developed countries. She is an ARB (Architects Registration Board) Visits Panel Member and UK Adaptation Assessor, International and UK RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Validation board member (2017-), Athena Swan Chartered Reviewer (2017-), member, and mentor for the WiA-Women in Architecture (2018-). She is a Guest Professor at ISCTE IUL - University of Lisbon, Portugal, Department of Architecture and Urbanism, M.Arch on Smart Ecological Urban Green and Blue Corridors (2019-).  

Recently she has been appointed Vice-President of the Council of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (2025-).

Since 2018, Sara has been involved in enhancing inclusiveness and equality in the workplace as the Chair of the Women’s Voice Network and member of the assessment team for the Athena Swan transformed Charter implementation and assessment panels. She is currently the Director of Studies for Architecture at the University of Bath and was previously the Head of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Huddersfield and Head of Architecture and Design at the University of Salford, UK.

Sara has a number of refereed articles publications. Her latest book is the Manchester Ship Canal, Back to the Future for Disused European Waterways, ISBN 978-3-7315-1084-0 (Elkadi, H and Biscaya, S, 2021), KIT. She has also supervised a number of PhD students.