Postdoctoral position in Urban design and Transport planning

We invite applications for a post-doctoral position in the Division of Urban design and Planning at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. As the postdoctoral researcher you will be responsible for interdisciplinary research on sustainable planning and development, aiming to support holistic street design and assessment and promote the integration of urban design and traffic planning in practice. You will be part of the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG), a research group engaged in urban research within the fields of urban morphology, urban analytics, space syntax and design theory. 

Information about the Department
The Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering (ACE) represents a broad field of knowledge theory ranging from engineering science to social science to the humanities and design-based, artistic research. These different perspectives enable strong interdisciplinary development in this field and a broader discussion of different aspects of sustainability. Architects and planners need to handle these challenges in their daily practice and there is a great need for new knowledge within the field.

Information about the research project
Urban design and transport planning are integral processes in urban development, synergetic in nature but often conflicting in application. For decades they followed parallel paths, separately evolved their concepts and methods, optimized and expanded their design guidelines, established best practices and universal standards. Despite of these advances in each field, the silo approaches and the predominance of traffic planning over urban design have caused a series of problems in urban areas (e.g. illegible, unsafe walking environments; infrastructure barrier effects; unattractive public spaces due to e.g. air and noise pollution; inefficient use of land resulting in high maintenance costs of public land and reduced revenues from development plans). This competition over urban space with different development agendas culminates in the street, the primary materialization of the interface between transport and urban development. For the sustainable development agenda, the street can play an important role by promoting multimodality and active travel, multifunctionality, accessibility to all, as well as environmentally friendly, viable, liveable and safe urban areas.

The project ‘Towards holistic street design. Showcasing integration potentials of urban design and traffic engineering guidelines in relation to the sustainable development agenda’ will facilitate an integration of these approaches through knowledge exchange and integration of two practices responsible for street design: urban design and traffic engineering. In light of the sustainable development directives and contemporary policy trends (e.g. promotion of active travel, lower speed limits, reduced car use), technologic innovations (e.g. self-driving cars) and new mobility solutions (e.g. e-scooters), the project will review street design typologies and guidelines from both disciplines, analyzing conflicts and synergies, and identifying the street variables that affect the sustainable development agenda most and are central to the divergence between urban design and traffic engineering. The project will also develop prototypes for holistic street design guidelines and propose a new holistic impact assessment method of streets.

Major responsibilities
As the post-doctoral researcher, you will be the main researcher on the interdisciplinary research program. This includes a comparative review of different street design and traffic guidelines, their effect on urban qualities and functions of social, economic and ecological nature, and the development of new holistic prototypes and guidelines.

The post-doc position will also include teaching in relevant urban design or engineering courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate program at the Department of Architecture and Civil engineering.

Contract terms
Full-time temporary employment that should not start later than June 1st 2022. The position is limited to a maximum of two years (1+1).

Qualifications
To qualify for the post-doctoral position you must have a PhD in Architecture, Urban design, Planning, Traffic planning, or a related field. The degree should generally not be older than 3 years.

You should have knowledge of urban design and planning, including methods and theories in the field of urban morphology with an emphasis on quantitative methods (e.g. space syntax metrics). You should also have experience in GIS including spatial analysis and network modelling. Sound oral and written skills in English is a requirement. Chalmers also offers Swedish courses.

Additional merits taken into account are:
Practical experience in urban design, transport planning and/or traffic planning.
Knowledge of Swedish is a merit.

Application procedure
Learn more and apply on Chalmers website: https://www.chalmers.se/sv/om-chalmers/Arbeta-pa-Chalmers/lediga-tjanster/Sidor/default.aspx?rmpage=job&rmjob=9848&rmlang=SE

Application deadline: 1 December, 2021

For questions, please contact:
Ioanna Stavroulaki, Docent-Senior researcher, Division of Urban Design and Planning
Email: gianna.stavroulaki@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 (0)729 62 68 30

*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***