Postdoc in Urban Climate Morphology

• Develop and apply a data-driven methodological framework to identify cross-scale urban archetypes, from building façades and individual buildings to neighbourhood configurations.
• Carry out quantitative morphological analyses and employ clustering techniques to identify representative urban types and their potential for integrating passive cooling strategies.
• Contribute to scalable passive cooling strategies that help cities adapt to rising temperatures while reducing energy demand.
• Develop and test transferable unsupervised classification methods for identifying urban archetypes across multiple urban scales and assess their thermal performance.
• Use GIS to collect and harmonise spatial datasets from European case-study cities.
• Develop a database focusing on building stock from 1980 to 2000 to support comparative analysis and the development of context-sensitive cooling strategies.
• Connect urban morphology with practical climate adaptation.
• Contribute to microclimatic modelling, exploring solar radiation, wind flows, and urban heat island effects.
• Support the integration of these findings into building and district-scale energy assessments.
• Collaborate with municipalities, professionals, and citizens through Urban Living Labs to co-create and evaluate cooling solutions.
• Take a leading role in methodological development while collaborating with experts in urban climate, energy modelling, and participatory planning.
• Advance independent research, publish scientific findings, develop transferable datasets and design guidelines, and build an international academic network.
• Participate in international project meetings, workshops, and Urban Living Lab activities.

What they ask

• A PhD in Urbanism, Urban Geography, Geoinformatics, Environmental Engineering, Urban Climate, or a related field before starting employment.
• Advanced skills in GIS, spatial data processing, and quantitative urban morphological analysis.
• Experience with statistical analysis, unsupervised classification techniques, and programming in Python and/or R.
• Practical experience in urban microclimatic modelling and understanding relationships between urban form, climate, and energy performance.
• Effective communication in written and spoken English, including scientific writing.
• Enjoy collaborating in international, interdisciplinary research teams.
• Ability to independently develop research methods, manage complex datasets, and contribute to scientific publications and collaborative research projects.
• Openness to international travel for project activities.

Preferences.

• Experience with passive cooling, building energy assessment, participatory research, or Urban Living Labs.
• Working knowledge of Dutch is an advantage, but not required.