Junior Professor in the Domain of Critical Reflective Practice: Interior Architecture

Organisation/Company KU LEUVEN Department interior architecture Research Field Architecture » Design Researcher Profile Established Researcher (R3) Final date to receive applications 30 Sep 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country Belgium Type of Contract To be defined Job Status Part-time Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Reference Number ZAP-2026-22 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

We look for candidates who are active as an interior architect within an exemplary design practice and who, by their design and practicing, develop a critical position within the field of interior architecture and its actual challenges and international debates.
Design-driven research affiliated with the interior architecture programme at the Faculty of Architecture, Sint-Lucas campus, pairs an interest in a substantive understanding of interior architecture, ‘the interior’ as a spatial entity, with more agentic conceptualizations. Interior Architecture herein is advanced as a practice of ‘interiorizing’; of assembling novel interior ecologies and associated novel habitual patterns, driven by the rapidly shifting paradigms of the present.

Hence, the research activity we intend to further strengthen through this vacancy is ‘projective’ in nature, as it projects scenarios of future patterns of habitation through design projects. As a succesful candidate you will advance a clear (design-driven) position in relation to this general orientation of interior ecologies and you will argue for the particular agency of both yourself as practicing interior architect and your current and planned design work in this context.
In this context you develop a research programme (20% of dedicated time within the 50% appointment) with your practice as main driver:

• You will have demonstrable expertise and skills in designing and constructing/materialising design ideas derived from practice, within real-world situations, linked to theoretical frameworks related to the notion of ‘interior ecologies’.
• The research should connect with ongoing research programmes and research projects.
• You set up collaborations within and outside the department.
• You support national and international collaborations of the research group/section and help to promote and develop them. You will also actively participate in the development of future research projects of the group/section.
• You publish and generate scientific output, including ADRO (Artistic and Design-led Research Output) at the relevant scientific level within the field of interior architecture.
• When appointed as ZAP, you acquire resources for fundamental and/or applied research and you build (international) cooperation. You are involved in, facilitate and stimulate PhDs with a design-driven focus, as a supervisor and as a member of the supervisory committee. Your research contributes to the further strengthening and anchoring of design-driven, artistic and practice-based research at the Department of Architecture and is based on the development of a critical academic design practice linked to innovative learning environments.

You provide high-quality teaching (max. 30% of dedicated time within the 50% appointment, in balance with the services you provide) within the field of design in interior architecture with a clear commitment to the quality of the educational programme as a whole. You will also contribute to the teaching project of the faculty/university by supervising master's theses.
You will develop your teaching in line with KU Leuven's vision of activating and research-based education and make use of the opportunities for educational professionalisation offered by the faculty and the university.
Your teaching assignment is determined in consultation on the basis of your specific profile. In doing so, the faculty pays due attention to the balance between research, teaching and (internal) service time.
The focus of the teaching is on the design studios in interior architecture (Bachelor/Master). You will further operationalize and transfer insights of your practice…