PhD scholarship within Urban Design and Urban Development

We are looking for a person who wants to explore the relation between density and spatiality both in micro, meso and macro urban scale and to do research in an interdisciplinary field architecture (urban morphology), urban sociology, economics and law.
Within the topic, there are several issues to increase our research efforts. It is desirable that the applicant addresses one or more of the following focus areas:
The result of densification strategies and collaboration between different stakeholders in the implementation process.
Market led interest of property development versus public interest of area based common goods.
Design process in urban development, handling architectural values against property rights, economic and market variables.

Description

Both international, national and local politics support an urban development strategy that densify the already built-up areas. Enough research evidence confirms this as a way to more sustainable land use and way of living. Compact cities reduce transport needs, prevent unnecessary downsizing of agricultural landscape, and protect quality of nature for outdoor recreation. We also know a lot about conflicts in the wake of densification processes and that this requires both good skills in participation and negotiation processes towards both those new developments will affect, and those who can contribute to the urban development.

The challenge in planning is to implement the strategy in a way that the result will be compact and livable in a broader context and not just higher density on arbitrary development sites.

The Department is aiming to develop better methods of practice and testing of solutions for how to carry out densification strategies. The term “compact city” is implemented as a goal, without any further discussion of how to understand the "compact city model" in a Norwegian context. Likewise, it is a question if present regulation techniques and juridical instruments are sufficient and suitable to achieve the results we expect.
Academic Qualifications
We are looking for a candidate with a Master's degree in urban planning, architecture, real estate development, landscape architecture or sociology.

Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Project proposal
Master thesis
Scientific papers, other written works
Relevant work experiences
Project work
Administrative and organizational experience

Nr of positions available : 1