The Professor will maintain and strengthen the high reputation of TU Delft in research and teaching on ‘integrated urbanism’ particularly at the metropolitan scale. Regional design and planning explores and envisions the future of cities and metropolitan regions and builds bridges between long-term vision-making, strategies, and practical interventions. Regional design and planning is a wide field within which the Professor will concentrate on the use of the designerly approach of ‘envisioning’, employing spatial representations and mapping.

In particular, the Professor will contribute to developing regional and metropolitan designs and to disseminating knowledge on regional design and planning methodology, on regional design and planning oriented methods of analysis, and on how regional design and planning can steer the political agenda of metropolitan regions. And today’s metropolitan agenda presents major interdisciplinary societal challenges, in (i) quality of life and metropolitan vitality; (ii) local, regional and (inter)national connectivity; and (iii) resilience and circularity. The Professor will undertake research on the metropolitan region delimited by Paris, London, Cologne and Amsterdam, and compare spatial development and regional design practices in north-west Europe with those in other parts of the world where TU Delft has research underway, particularly in Asia and America.

The Professor will collaborate with Delft colleagues and the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen (EFL) Foundation to create a five-year agenda for research in regional design and planning. The Professor is expected to build and lead teams that will make large-scale national, international and interdisciplinary collaborative research funding proposals, which combine design, social science and engineering components. This role involves extensive collaboration with other disciplines in Delft University of Technology and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions’ (AMS) network of academic, societal and industrial partners. The Professor is expected to appoint PhD candidates with external funding to enlarge critical mass in the research field. The Professor will be given the opportunity to develop a proposal for a post-doc position sponsored by AMS. The Professor will take a leading role in publication, leading by example, and stimulating and supporting colleagues’ publications and grant proposals.

The Professor will work with Delft colleagues to strengthen links between the regional and metropolitan design and planning research agenda with education in curriculum development, courses and studios. The Professor will help to develop teaching methods which link design, planning, research and practice. This will include blended learning approaches which are a priority for the Department.

The Professor of Regional Design & Planning first and foremost will demonstrate:

• a distinguished career (academic and/or practice) in regional design and planning, built on an academic education in urbanism or another relevant subject;
• experience of urbanism practice, either directly or through research;
• experience in combining study-by-design and academic research;
• experience of collaboration across professions such as architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, infrastructure planning and water management; and across societal sectors such as government bodies, industrial and/or societal actors, and civil society;
• an active national and international network of professional and academic contacts;
• visibility in professional and societal debates on regional design and planning.

Additionally, the Professor will demonstrate:

• a doctoral degree (or exceptionally, an equivalent record of academic achievement);
• in-depth experience of the research process (including acquisition) through major collaborative projects conducted in academia or practice;
• experience or demonstrated potential in PhD candidate supervision;
• experience in teaching at bachelor and master level, and in connecting practice and research to higher education;
• leadership through managing change, team-building and collaborative working;
• tactful interpersonal skills, and preferably experience in intercultural environments;
• outstanding spoken and written communication skills in English, particularly the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly to students and external partners, and (if necessary), a willingness to learn Dutch within a reasonable timespan.

The Professor of Regional Design and Planning will receive an appointment of 0.6 for an initial period of five years. The Professor position is initiated and sponsored by the EFL foundations and the TU Delft Department of Urbanism. The Urbanism department has the ambition to make this Professor position into a permanent 0.8-1.0fte place in the department in the future. The Professor will contribute to finding ways to do this.

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

TU Delft sets specific standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. TU Delft offers training to improve English competency.

Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. If you have less than five years of experience and do not yet have your teaching certificate, we allow you up to three years to obtain this.

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is a multifaceted institution offering education and carrying out research in the technical sciences at an internationally recognised level. Education, research and design are strongly oriented towards applicability. TU Delft develops technologies for future generations, focusing on sustainability, safety and economic vitality. At TU Delft you will work in an environment where technical sciences and society converge. TU Delft comprises eight faculties, unique laboratories, research institutes and schools.

https://www.tudelft.nl

Faculty Architecture & the Built Environment

Architecture and the Built Environment

Since its foundation in 1904, the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment has built up an outstanding international reputation for training architects, urban planners and designers, as well as for its research portfolio and coaching PhD candidates. With around 2,600 students, 500 staff members and 230 fte staff, our faculty is one of the most prestigious architecture and built environment faculties globally. Over 40 chairs cover a wide range of academic areas in design, planning, management and technology in the built environment. The faculty has a budget of around €38 million, of which approximately €7 million is from contracts with third parties.

The Department of Urbanism in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at TU Delft is seeking to appoint a Professor of Regional Design and Planning. Urbanism is concerned with the complex relations between the physical form of cities and regions and social life within them. Thus, urbanism draws on knowledge and research from design, the social and physical sciences, and engineering disciplines. In the Netherlands, and Delft in particular, we recognise that meeting these objectives requires an integrated approach to urbanism combining the creative-analytical methods of understanding from urban and landscape design and planning, together with research in the social and policy sciences, and with environmental and information technologies. In response to today’s regional and metropolitan challenges, Dutch spatial development and transformation strategies are widely recognised as models to learn from. The world is looking to TU Delft as a leader in the field for guidance on regional design and planning to promote more progressive metropolitan urbanisation.

In a 2016 research assessment conducted under the Dutch Standard Evaluation Protocol, the Urbanism Department’s research programme was assessed as ‘world leading/excellent’ in ‘research quality’ and ‘social relevance’, and ‘very good’ in ‘viability’. The TU Delft is ranked third in the world for architecture and the built environment in the QS World University rankings (2018), and second in the world for urban planning in the University Rankings of Academic Performance (2016-2017).

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/architecture-and-the-built-environment/