PhD student Innovation in housing for older people and subjective wellbeing (2 mandates)

Background

In the autumn of 2021, UHasselt, VUB and PXL will be starting a large-scale SBO research project on innovation in the area of housing for older people and subjective wellbeing. The "HOUSE" project is supported by the Strategic Basic Research Programme (SBO), and with this programme the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) wants to support innovative research with a view to translation into societal applications.

In the Faculty of Architecture and Arts of Hasselt University, research in architecture and interior architecture is bundled in the ArcK research group, where doctoral students together with experienced colleagues, conduct fundamental and applied research into the built environment, from interior to city. With a focus on important societal challenges, the research is organised into thematic research lines: Designing for More (human-centred design), Trace (adaptive reuse), Sustainability (sustainability in energy and material use), Spatial Capacity Building (participation) and Frame (artistic research). This vacancy is positioned within the research line Designing for More.

More information: www.uhasselt.be/fac-architectuur-en-kunst

Adult Educational Sciences of Vrije Universiteit Brussels has a long tradition of research on participation of older adults and is a pioneer in the field of social gerontology research in Belgium. A common thread in their research is the importance of an age-friendly and inclusive living environment. Research therefore focuses on the social environment (social relations, cohesion, loneliness), the cultural environment (diversity, migration), the physical environment (housing, urban planning), and the institutional environment (care institutions, prison, government).

Job content

The ageing of our population, which will continue in the coming decades, will strongly influence our housing sector and will put current and future housing policies and the housing sector to the test. The context in which people live will always have to meet objective architectural parameters, but there is a growing demand to also take into account issues related to people's subjective wellbeing. The SBO project HOUSE starts from the observation that there is currently a lack of knowledge about the influence of housing design on the subjective wellbeing of present and future generations of older people. Through interdisciplinary (quantitative, qualitative and design) research in cooperation with various societal stakeholders, this project aims not only to acquire scientific knowledge about this topic, but also to translate it into practice.

For this project, we are looking for 4 researchers who will work on the preparation of a PhD thesis during 4 years. They will form a team together with the promoters of the research to carry out this project.

The large-scale study proposes four scientific research goals:

(1) To identify heterogeneity of different profiles of older people

(2) To understand how innovative housing concepts and characteristics could contribute to the subjective wellbeing of older people.

(3) To test and validate an evaluation instrument on "housing for subjective wellbeing of older people".

(4) Developing and evaluating spatial scenarios for innovative housing for subjective well-being of older people.

The 2 doctoral scholarships of UHasselt will mainly focus on objectives 2 and 4. To achieve both objectives, different research methods will be used (e.g. literature study, analysis of policy documents, interviews with actors, research by design).

As described above, the research conducted must offer the prospect of societal applications. Therefore, different societal stakeholders (e.g. architects, care organisations, organisations for older people, policy makers) will be involved.

We are therefore looking for team players with an interest in older people and housing/design, who have demonstrable knowledge/experience of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods and/or a strong willingness to delve further into this.

As a researcher you will be part of the HOUSE consortium. This consortium includes various partners who are each responsible for different subprojects within the larger whole, namely the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University, Adult Educational Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and PXL. This results in specific profile requirements.

Below, you can find the profile for the 2 employees who will be recruited within the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Hasselt University. The specific profile requirements for the other 2 PhD fellowships can be found on the VUB website.