Junior Professor in Smart Architecture and Built Heritage

Job Summary

We are looking for highly motivated candidates with the capacity of developing research at the interface of architecture (design, construction, urbanism and landscape, heritage) and the digital domain, and able to engage actively with our educational programs. The research performed at the Department of Architecture encompasses the field of architecture in its broadest sense, meaning the built environment created by man, at the heart of which stands design. From theory and history to construction and building technology, from heritage conservation to urbanism, spatial planning and landscape architecture, we strive only for excellence.

This vacancy responds to a growing need: the need of leveraging emerging digital technologies into new, critical methods that will drive new kinds of research on the built environment, its design and its production. It explicitly aims at building upon and combining with the existing expertise within KU Leuven, the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Department of Architecture.

Duties

Research

• You develop high-level, internationally oriented research on smart architecture and built
• You will be actively involved in doctoral research at the Department of Architecture, as promoter or as a member of the advisory committee. You will thus build up your research group, demonstrating academic leadership qualities.
• You also actively develop new research projects at the Section and in the Department. You competitively acquire research funding on the university, national and/or European level.
• You actively support and assist in developing national and international collaboration at the Section and at the Research Unit you are associated with.
• You strive for excellence in your research and consequently provide a contribution to the continued development of the Department.

Education

You ensure high-quality education within the broad field of smart architecture, with a clear commitment to the quality of the programme as a whole. In particular, you contribute to the design studios which are part of the bachelor and master programmes in engineering: architecture, and of the master after master programmes at the Department. You develop new teaching courses on smart architecture within the framework set out by the program directors.

You integrate your research within your teaching. You commit yourself to reviewing the existing didactical model critically, to refine and further develop it. You help to develop design exercises which strengthen the research by design component of the educational programs at the Department.

You also contribute to the pedagogic project of the faculty/university through the supervision of master theses and as a promoter of PhD students. You develop your teaching in accordance with KU Leuven’s vision on activating and research-based education and make use of the possibilities for the educational professionalization offered by the Faculty and the University.

Profile

• You have a master degree in architectural engineering or architecture, or a related degree, and a PhD whereby the subject of your doctoral thesis was related to the research and educational field.
• International experience during your academic training and/or international experience with practice, and/or collaboration with practitioners from other disciplines, are considered a plus.
• Experience with teaching students in architecture, architectural engineering, conservation or related fields will also be considered a plus. You are ready to help position the program of engineering/architecture and the master after master degrees at the Department within the (inter)national world of architectural education.
• You possess organisational skills and you adopt a cooperative attitude towards your colleagues. You champion a dynamic department. You are willing to build bridges between practice, education and research on the one hand, and between sections, institutes, organisations and communities on the other.
• A good command of English is required
• The official language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in meetings
• Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.

Offer

We are offering full-time employment in an intellectually challenging environment. The alma mater of acclaimed scholars such as Erasmus, Andreas Vesalius and Georges Lemaître, KU Leuven has a rich scientific tradition and history. Its internationally renowned research and educational programmes cause it to consistently rank among the best 50 universities worldwide.

You will work in Heverlee near Leuven, a historic, dynamic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.

In accordance with the rules for this particular position, you will be appointed as assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of 5 years; after this period and a positive evaluation, you will be permanently appointed (or tenured) as an associate professor.

Application

Add to your application following documents (more information is available on the KU Leuven job site):

• Your biosketch in which you indicate your added value as an academic for research, education and service to society of your past career and of your future activities (maximum 2 pages);
• A file on your five most important publications or realizations;
• An extensive cv (including a list of your publications and if applicable, a portfolio of your past projects);
• Your research plan with focus on the development of your research line and research team in relation with the colleague-researchers of the entity of employment (maximum 5 pages);
• Your vision on academic education and its organization (maximum 2 pages);
• Your contribution to society by outreach and public communication on science and technology, internal representation in boards and councils and service activities directly in relation to your developed expertise (maximum 1 page);
• Your vision on leadership (maximum 1 page).