Postdoctoral researcher ERC project URBAN-DELTA

Organisation/Company KU LEUVEN Research Field History » Art history Architecture » Design History » Archaeology History » Medieval history History » Social history Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Established Researcher (R3) Final date to receive applications 16 Mar 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 1 Jun 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Horizon Europe - ERC Reference Number BAP
- Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Project

Deltas are among the most urbanised and wealthiest regions of the world. Today, their very existence is threatened by climate change. Innovative solutions are urgently needed, and delta cities around the globe have joined forces to confront the climate crisis. The dependence on innovation for their survival is, however, not a recent phenomenon but has a longer history. Surprisingly, little is known about the specialised skills and knowledge shown by earlier civilisations in constructing and protecting these cities.

URBAN-DELTA hypothesises that major advances in the history of water-related engineering were not random but occurred at specific places and times. Several pioneering hotspots in the pre‑industrial age seem to have existed. Therefore, the aim of URBAN-DELTA is to attain an entirely new, multidisciplinary understanding of technological innovations by tracing and explaining their historical emergence in the production of the built environment in Eurasian deltas before 1800.

This project is the first in-depth comparative study of construction techniques for marshy conditions. It examines three key deltas in Europe and China: that of the Po, the Rhine‑Scheldt‑Meuse and the Yangtze. The project questions how builders overcame technological limitations. Did innovation occur incrementally, or were there spurts at specific times and places? What were the dynamics of these processes, and what factors stimulated innovation?

URBAN-DELTA studies the built environment from a comparative perspective, combining approaches from Engineering, Economic and Architectural History. It tests hypotheses central to the debate over the conditions for innovation by examining a vital industry that has hitherto been ignored in scholarship. It aims to fundamentally rethink how architecture comes into being and to develop an entirely new explanatory framework for future research.

In addition, it generates new knowledge urgently needed to preserve heritage threatened by climate change.

Within the project, we offer two 36-month full-time postdoc positions. The first postdoc will concentrate on the Yangtze Delta in China, while the second will focus on construction markets in deltas in Europe and China before 1800.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will identify what was considered building know‑how specific to the Yangtze River Delta with its early 'megapolises' (e.g. Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou). You will trace the development of a range of techniques for building in marshy urban conditions, particularly in the Song and Ming dynasties. Much of the groundwork is still to be done, as literature on construction techniques and machinery is limited, and hardly any synthesis studies exist.

Questions regarding which specialised building technologies existed and what building knowledge was developed remain largely unanswered. You will develop three distinct lines of study grounded in the rigorous analysis of primary sources, both written and material. The first consists of an in‑depth study of techniques that negotiated difficult conditions by providing greater stability, in particular, the development of foundation techniques.

The second line examines how architecture was built and focuses on the mechanisation of construction processes through the use of pumps, drainage devices, pile drivers etc. The third trend focuses on Chinese building manuals on architecture and hydraulic works and questions whether they merely recorded existing practices,…