PRR Project

Summary

The Assistant Professor will be responsible for conducting research and teaching activities in housing and building rehabilitation fields, within a cultural (heritage) and environmental (sustainable development) framework and focussed on project design. The teaching activities will be manly connected with the Integrated Master in Architecture and Building Rehabilitation, in the architectural doctoral course and in the advanced courses on “Housing rehabilitation” and “Housing Innovation” promoted by the New Housing Generation Alliance project. It will also supervise students research, including PhD students.The main focus of the activities will be on research, including carrying out research projects in housing and building rehabilitation fields, comprising research by design projects, and promoting the integration of research in the teaching activity. It will work in close relation with the Associate Professor (other position proposed in this application) and participate on the transversal research “cluster” on housing sustainability, aimed at cross fertilization thinking, activities and projects, thus contributing to the critical mass needed to implement the “cluster vision”.It is also expected that the Assistant Professor participates in the projects teams of “UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies”, under the Associate Professor coordination, and “Portuguese Language Cooperation Network for Collaborative Research in Architecture and Urbanism” (PLANCRAU), under the Principal Researcher coordination (other position proposed in this application). The main contributes expected are in the field of housing and building rehabilitation praxis and in architecture project design contribution to promote inclusive, innovative, sustainable and affordable housing, in particular, in what relates to architecture heritage of Portuguese origin.The scientific profile required is a person with a PhD in architecture and, preferably, teaching, research and project design practice in housing and building rehabilitation. Having also experience in working (research and project) with architectural heritage will be valued, as well as participation in research projects (national and international) and networks related with the scientific field.The need to hire a researcher in this specific scientific area emerges from the urgence and the need of FA-ULisboa and CIAUD to make a structural change in fulling embracing Sustainable Development Goals as both a requirement and an aim in project teaching and research, in all domains (design, architecture and urbanism). Being housing project design one of the core fields of architectural practice and in the need to build in and with the existent built environment in order to achieve this aim, housing and building rehabilitation need to be central in architectural research and education. There are also additional new societal challenges and need that require new research and innovative architectural responses, that justify the urgent need to reinforce FA and CIAUD capacities in the domain, specially:The international housing crisis, that has a particular incidence in Portugal and in Lisbon´s Metropolitan Area and that demands a critical thinking on the contributes that architecture can bring to promote more inclusive and affordable housing.The new demographic dynamics and specific housing needs for an active and autonomous ageing.The architectural innovation demanded by the new household profiles, the increasing territorial and housing mobility, work patterns and new ways of living and service-sharing culture.The current Portuguese new wave of public housing production, as well as new policies, instruments and regulations, that imply a huge change in paradigm, and demands study, scientific and technical support, monitorization and evaluation.In fact, the reinforcement of research and teaching in the housing and building rehabilitation fields, within a cultural (heritage) and environmental (sustainable development) framework, and focussed on research by design and project design, is strategic to both FA and CIAUD. This is a way to increase their relevance in the current world and to society, by contributing to answer its important challenges, improving living conditions and quality of life, and educating and preparing the new generation of architects to understand and deal with the complexity of the contemporary world.This position is also crucial to guarantee the critical mas needed to implement the “cluster vision”, in particular considering that architecture is a pivot discipline between the “small object to the city scales”, or between the approaches brought by the design and urbanism branches (other positions proposed in this application) of the cluster – thus, the bridging role that the architecture disciplinary area will play in the promoting an integrated approach and multi-, inter- and trans disciplinary projects in research and education on housing sustainability.