PhD - Sustainable Built Environment - co-creating solutions for smart and sustainable transformation

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At the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, ntnu.no/ibm, there is a PhD fellowship available. The appointment has a duration of 3 years, or 4 years (including 1 year teaching duties).The candidate will be a member of the research project SWELL, and the theme is Urban Facility Management oriented. The research project is designed in collaboration with Trondheim municipality and other faculties in NTNU.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim represents academic eminence in technology and the natural sciences as well as in other academic disciplines ranging from the social sciences, the arts, medicine, teacher education, architecture to fine art. Cross-disciplinary cooperation results in innovative breakthroughs and creative solutions with far-reaching social and economic impact.

The project proposal addresses the principles of the built environment that enable maximizing the economic, social and environmental opportunities of inhabitants, thereby laying the foundations for a prosperity and health. The objective is to better understand the relation between urban elements and design to individual / community scale and how these affect health and well-being. Research will pay particular attention to citizen participation, stakeholder engagement and integrated planning/designing approaches, with a focus on sustainable transformation of the BE. Nature Based Solutions as multipurpose infrastructure will also be investigated as elements that serve important urban functions. The implementation and transformation challenges from a neighborhood management context and investigate how Smart Urban Hubs and Urban Living Lab could play a transformative role from a social engagement and transformation perspectives.

.The main objective is to create an urban value ecosystem, which has people and environment as the main driving forces, to empower citizens to develop and support the development of user-friendly environments and having urban facility manager as the one of the enabler and implementer. The main research question is How can we empower citizens to co-create and co-design various solutions for the smart and sustainable transformation of spaces at different urban environment scales to increase HWB parameters. In order to meet this, we focus on innovative processes, services and products to empower citizens to actively participating in co-management of sustainable transformation. Innovation processes should be examined within: i/ urban economics to regenerate the environment (PPPP), ii/ socio-economic aspects with value orientation, iv/ individual/social aspect to inspire people to change their behavior toward sustainable lifestyle, iv/ community engagement with digital and analogue techniques, v) develop user-centred inclusive design in environments and communities, vi) support the creation and implementation of smart, healthy environments for present and future generations in collaboration with the other SWELL PhDs.

The position reports to Professor Alenka Temeljotov-Salaj.