PhD Position: Natural Building Skins for Heat Resilience

This PhD position at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) focuses on creating climate-resilient building skins that integrate vegetation, circular materials, and smart ventilation to improve indoor comfort without relying on energy-intensive cooling. The project, funded by NWO, aims to retrofit existing dwellings with affordable, easy-to-install solutions that mitigate overheating, regulate indoor conditions, and support biodiversity. The successful candidate will conduct experimental research, prototyping, and stakeholder co-creation, testing full-scale façade prototypes at TU Delft’s MATELab facility under real-world conditions. The role is ideal for interdisciplinary researchers passionate about combining design, ecology, and building physics to address urban climate challenges.

• Conduct experimental research and prototyping to develop nature-based building skins that improve heat resilience in existing homes.
• Collaborate with residents, manufacturers, and industry partners to identify user acceptance, maintenance, and practical barriers for design and installation.
• Develop and test full-scale façade prototypes at TU Delft’s MATELab facility under real-world weather conditions to assess heat resilience, ventilation, and indoor environmental performance.
• Evaluate prototype systems using circular-design principles, focusing on material efficiency, adaptability, reuse potential, and life-cycle environmental impacts.
• Conduct user studies to investigate comfort, interaction, and acceptance of the proposed solutions.
• Extend experimental findings through numerical simulations to assess performance across different building and climate conditions.
• Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals and present results at international conferences.