Stiliyana Minkovska is a qualified architect (ARB/RIBA) and a female-centred healthcare designer, who practises across the wide intercourses of art, architectural, interior, product design, making and design research. Her work focuses on transforming health services through research and design. Creating a more human and supportive environment in maternity wards and birth centres is a topic that excites Styliana as a professional and as a young mother of two. She received an MA Architecture degree from the Royal College of Art in 2016. Her thesis project focused on pregnancy and childbirth led her to the Design Museum in London, where she was offered the opportunity to be one of four designers in residence for 2019. There she created the Ultima Thule birthing furniture triptych, an alternative to the traditional delivery room, a space designed to make the experience for mother and child more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Most recently, Stiliyana graduated with MRes in Healthcare & Design with the Royal College of Art & Imperial College London in June 2022 and her personal project developed during the course was awarded with distinction. In the same year one of her thesis projects (about rethinking speculum) became a startup, thanks to which she was able to further develop her idea and win funding that will see her working on a functioning prototype of a medical technology in 2023 that has the potential to change the world of gynecology and women’s experiences during procedures such as pap smears, colonoscopies and more. Matrix is a digitally-enabled speculum designed for stand-alone use – a radical and pioneering product that places patient experience and clinical learning at the forefront of design and manufacture.

Styliana also works actively as a service designer with the UK National Health System (NHS). She is a representative for an organisation supporting women and parents affected by the healthcare system during the perinatal period.

DESIGN is... a multicultural language. A language that everyone can speak and understand. Design is my way to communicate.

AWARDS, PARTICIPATIONS, EXHIBITIONS

Research Biennale – Designscapes of Childbirth, online showcase January 2021
UN Official Delegate – selected to represent the UK for the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women – March, 2021
Lexus Design Awards 2021 – FINALIST (1 of 17 finalists to run for the award out of over 2,000 applications) – December, 2020
MADE IT 2020 – Digital Exhibition at Short Supply, Manchester, October 2020
Review of Bulgarian Design – One of ten artists selected for a design show at Credo Bonum Gallery in Sofia, November 2020
Regenerative List – Selection to be part of the first Regenerative Futures, a collaboration with Gucci and the United Nations, August 2020
Royal College of Art Scholarship – MRes Healthcare & Design, 2020
Melba Design Initiatives XI – Invitation to participate in the annual design festival of Bulgarian Outstanding Design, June 2020
Virtual Design Festival – First Digital Design Festival in collaboration with Dezeen and the Design Museum, June 2020
Birth Rites Collection – Shortlisted artwork for an exhibition at King’s College Hospital, June 2020
Mother Art Prize 2020 – Shortlisted artwork for the exhibition at Cromwell Place Gallery, May 2020
Designer in Residence – the Design Museum, 2019 – 2020 with showcase from January to July 2020. The residency research and
product design outcome was donated to St Thomas’ Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust.
Arper – Selection to collaborate on the furniture design’s brand new SOFT(ER) collection and exhibit at their showroom, October 2019
London Design Festival – Exhibiting a film about pregnancy and motherhood at the Design Museum, September 2019
Mother Art Prize 2019 – Finalist with an exhibition at the Mimosa House Gallery in Mayfair, London, May – June 2019
LeftOvers – Finalist with an exhibition at 198 Gallery in Herne Hill, London, October – December 2018
South Kiosk Gallery – Exhibition with special focus on childbirth, July – September 2017
Other – Exhibition at Henry Moore Gallery at the Royal College of Art, March – April 2016
Work-in-Progress Show – Exhibition as part of MA Architecture at RCA, January 2015 and February 2016
Royal College of Art – Bursary for academic achievements, 2014 – 2016
Royal Institute of British Architects – Boyd Auger Scholarship, January 2015
Prince’s Foundation – Full scholarship award for Traditional Craftsmanship Course in London and Dumfries, Scotland, August 2014
United Nations Habitat – Design & Research Delegate at the Urban Forum in Medellin, Colombia, April 2014
Architectural Association – Design & Make, Maeda Workshop in Hooke Park, Dorset, April 2013
Architectural Association – AA Visiting School in Koshirakura and Tokyo, August – September 2012
National Travelling Photography Contest – First Prize Winner with exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria from June to August 2011
EU Delegate – Full scholarship award to represent Bulgaria at the Multicultural Dialogue Conference in Strasbourg, February 2009