PhD stipend in Integrating Social Resilience and Building Heritage

The Technical Faculty of It and Design Department of Architecture Design and Media Technology invites applications for a PhD position in Architectural Research with a focus on how people places and building practices intertwine to create resilient ecosystems in urban contexts. Situated within an emerging research agenda exploring how design thinking can strengthen circularity and sustainable agendas in cities. The position is on the PhD program Media Architecture & Design.

This PhD position is part of a new interdisciplinary thematic research initiative that addresses Urban Social Resilience with particular attention to care ethics participatory processes and social innovation as guiding perspectives. The successful candidate will contribute to interdisciplinary research activities empirical studies and scholarly publications in close collaboration with a Postdoc and a PhD student appointed across the Department of Architecture Design & Media Technology and the Department of Sustainability & Planning. The position further offers engagement in a wider research network spanning sustainability planning urban design architecture and industrial design.

The position is available from 15 August 2026. The duration of the position is three years and is a full-time position (37 hours per week).

Your work tasks
This interdisciplinary PhD project addresses the urgent challenge of integrating urban heritage and increasing building transformation with future urban resilience strategies. Yet to date research on urban resilience has primarily focused on environmental and technological dimensions. Furthermore building heritage and adaptive reuse projects often exclude social vulnerabilities and ignore the affective involvement by wider local communities. With point of departure in these two dilemmas the PhD candidate will collaborate towards the shared goal of foregrounding social resilience and addressing relationships between people and space as well as experimenting with modes of citizen engagement and local ownership. This could for instance involve investigating how adaptive design relates to emotional attachment and social interdependence across a buildings lifespan including when buildings change functions owners and inhabitants.

The overarching aim is to investigate circularity connecting the building practices to people and places opening up the realm of social interactions relations rituals habits values and ethical commitments.

The PhD project may adopt different disciplinary perspectives empirical focus areas and methodological approaches within the broader field of urban social resilience and Building Heritage. At the same time it is expected that the project will relate to and further develop the research environments work with socio-material approaches human diversity as well as co-design and co-production in the context of urban social resilience.

Applicants are therefore expected to develop and outline a preliminary research proposal (13 pages) that presents their initial considerations regarding research focus research design and methodological approach in relation to urban social resilience within a building design perspective.

The specific empirical context of the PhD project is intentionally left open. As part of the application applicants are invited to propose and briefly describe the urban context(s) they wish to engage with in their empirical research. Relevant contexts may include for example neighbourhoods undergoing urban transformation historic city centres post-industrial areas housing estate areas peripheral urban settings or public places where practices of care repair reuse and social interaction can be meaningfully explored.

Your competencies
We seek applicants with a MSc in architecture sustainable design or related fields. Strong skills in qualitative research methods. Interest in circularity adaptive reuse building heritage social sustainability universal design or care ethics. Experience working across disciplines and with community or practice partners is an advantage.

The ideal candidate is motivated to work in interdisciplinary research environments and is interested in collaborating across disciplines and with a wide range of urban stakeholders including planners designers and architectural firms.

The position offers a dynamic and interdisciplinary research environment rooted in contemporary architectural research. The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to and shape a growing body of research on design for urban social resilience. The position includes support for scholarly publications and public communication of research as well as opportunities for teaching and involvement in Aalborg Universitys architecture and planning programmes.

Qualification requirements
PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Masters degree. PhD stipends are normally for a period of 3 years. It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Technical Doctoral School of IT and Design in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 1124 of September 19 2025 on the PhD Programme at the Universities and Certain Higher Artistic Educational Institutions. According to the Ministerial Order the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed at regular points in time. As part of the PhD study you are among other things required to complete PhD courses corresponding to 30 ECTS gain experience with teaching or other forms of knowledge dissemination and complete an external research stay outside of Aalborg University preferably 3-6 months at a foreign research institution.

Who we are
The Department of Architecture Design and Media Technology has as its goal the development of an innovative cluster of engineering-based environments for education and research which integrate creativity engineering and technology within the disciplines of architecture urban design industrial design digital design and interactive media. The department is a leading research and educational environment in Denmark that addresses the challenge of the interplay between creativity and technology and develops new areas in research and education directed towards the end-user.

You can read more about the department here: to apply
Your application must include the following:

• Application stating reasons for applying and qualifications in relation to the position
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Diplomas (bachelors and masters degree diploma including grades)
• Applicants are expected to develop and outline a preliminary research proposal (13 pages) that presents their initial considerations regarding research focus research design and methodological approach in relation to urban social resilience within a building design perspective.
• Other relevant documents

The application must be submitted via Aalborg Universitys recruitment system which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aalborg Universitys website.

Aalborg University wants to reflect the surrounding society and has diversity as a core value. Therefore everyone regardless of personal background and orientation is encouraged to apply for the position.

Do you have any questions
If you have any questions about the position you are more than welcome to contact us. You will find contact persons at the bottom of the jobpost.

Read more about The Technical Doctoral School of IT and Design

Salary and terms of employment
The employment is in accordance with the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities (the Appointment Order) and the Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities (in Danish).

Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with the collective agreement between the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations and the state (AC collective agreement) (in Danish)

There is a mutual probationary period of 3 months for the position.

Aalborg University - Knowledge for the world
Aalborg University is an international workplace with more than 3700 employees. We offer real-world-oriented education and create world-class research results through collaboration between researchers students and public and private companies. This is how we achieve insights new solutions to societal problems and knowledge that changes the world. Our main campus is in Aalborg but we also have campuses in Esbjerg and Copenhagen.