PhD researcher 'Co-design socio-ecological regeneration of social housing

Department of Architecture/ Faculty of Engineering

Organisation/Company KU LEUVEN Department Department of Architecture/ Faculty of Engineering Research Field Architecture >
Design Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Final date to receive applications 22 Sep 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Reference Number BAP
- Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Context: SBO project RESHAPEWe are looking for PhD researchers who wish to be part of the action research project RESHAPE ('Destigmatising social housing through socio-ecological regeneration: leveraging the upcoming renovation wave for just housing transitions'), which is supervised by an inter-university team of professors comprising Prof. Luce Beeckmans (Department of Architecture and 'Leuven Urban Studies Institute', KU Leuven), Prof. Stijn Oosterlynck (CRESC, Department of Sociology and Antwerp Urban Studies Institute, University of Antwerp), Prof.

Thomas Block (Department of Political Science, 'Centre for Sustainability Studies' and Stadsacademie, Ghent University), Prof. Liesbeth Huybrechts (Department of Architecture & Art and 'Civic and Policy Design', Hasselt University) and Prof. Bruno Meeus ('Knowledge Centre for Social Innovation', Utrecht University of Applied Sciences). Set up as a participatory action research project in collaboration with residents of four large-scale post-war social housing estates - the type of estates most affected by negative perceptions and representing a significant proportion of housing stock - in Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Genk, as well as with social housing organisations and other urban stakeholders, RESHAPE investigates how the forthcoming wave of renovation in social housing can not only bring about the necessary transition to a climate-friendly neighbourhood, but also contribute to destigmatising social housing.

By imagining alternative futures and designing and implementing scenarios for socio-ecological regeneration, building on existing destigmatising work in social housing estates, RESHAPE aims to break open the captured future of social housing in Flanders. RESHAPE is a strategic basic research project with a societal focus, funded by the FWO. As part of the RESHAPE project team, you will carry out action research alongside the other researchers, work on concrete project deliverables and applications, and contribute to academic output on the topic.

Four PhD researchers are being recruited for RESHAPE. The other vacancies can be found here:…

• You will actively work on the preparation and defence of a doctoral thesis on co-design in social housing. This PhD research is being carried out within the RESHAPE project (see above) and supervised by the Urban Design, Urbanism, Landscape and Planning (UULP) research group of the Department of Architecture (Faculty of Engineering Sciences, KU Leuven), with Prof. Luce Beeckmans as your supervisor.
• Central to your PhD research is the collaborative design of strategies and interventions that strengthen social housing both socially and environmentally, with the active involvement of residents and other relevant stakeholders. To this end, you will develop a stakeholder mapping for various social housing estates in Flanders and analyse co-creative and 'futuring' methods for co-design. Together with residents and other relevant stakeholders, and inspired by the analysis of destigmatising practices carried out by other researchers in the team, you will use research by design to develop new visions and scenarios for the socio-ecological regeneration of social housing beyond stigma, which will then be tested in workshops with a wider audience.
  
  This will result in an 'Atlas of Scenarios' and a 'Co-Design Toolkit' for the future regeneration of social housing.
• You will draw up a research plan and methodology in consultation with your supervisors and undertake the necessary administrative steps to ensure a smooth PhD process.
• You will…