PhD Student Position in Interoperable Digital Workflows for Regenerative Building Design and Perform

Mission

The South–North Laboratory for Sustainable Construction and Conservation (SONO Lab) at EPFL is recruiting a full-time PhD Student (100%) within the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), based at the EPFL Fribourg associated campus.

SONO Lab investigates low-carbon, climate-responsive and socially inclusive approaches to building design, construction and conservation. Its research combines architectural design, environmental assessment, digital methods, full-scale experimentation, building-performance monitoring and participatory approaches, with a particular focus on collaborations between Europe and Africa.

The successful candidate will contribute to REGEN4BE—Regenerative Design for the Built Environment, a Horizon Europe project developed within the New European Bauhaus framework. REGEN4BE seeks to make regenerative design measurable, interoperable and scalable through digital tools, innovative materials, participatory processes, Living Labs and policy development. Its outputs include a Regenerative Evaluation Framework and the Regenerative Design Intelligence Platform (REDIP). Fribourg is one of the project’s European demonstration and replication sites.

Within REGEN4BE, the candidate will develop and scientifically validate interoperable digital workflows linking Building Information Modelling (BIM), Building Energy Modelling (BEM), Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), embodied and operational carbon, circularity and material-reuse indicators, building monitoring, sensor data, Post-Occupancy Evaluation (PoE), and feedback from building operation into future design decisions.

The methods will be developed and tested through the REGEN4BE Fribourg demonstration activities, using Smart Living Lab data and infrastructure in close collaboration with the Building2050 team.

As an integrated strand of the doctoral thesis, the candidate will apply and adapt the REGEN4BE framework to selected earth-block and Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3)-based housing systems in African contexts. Building on SONO’s projects and partnerships, this research will examine how local materials, passive environmental strategies, construction processes, whole-life carbon, circularity, repairability, measured building performance and residents’ experience can inform regenerative design.

The European and African research strands will form one coherent doctoral project. The candidate will contribute to a generic interoperability framework within REGEN4BE and assess its transferability and necessary adaptation across different materials, climates, construction cultures and levels of digital infrastructure.

Main duties and responsibilities

As a PhD Student, you will take scientific responsibility for developing and completing your doctoral dissertation, formulate original research questions, and establish a rigorous methodology. You will conduct computational, experimental and field-based research in collaboration with academic, technical, institutional, software-development and industry partners. Your responsibilities will include collecting, managing, analysing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data, preparing articles for peer-reviewed journals, presenting findings at conferences, workshops and project meetings, contributing to REGEN4BE deliverables, demonstrations and dissemination activities, and participating in teaching and, where appropriate, the supervision of student projects.

Within REGEN4BE, you will contribute to the development and scientific validation of the Regenerative Design Intelligence Platform (REDIP) and its building-data and performance-assessment workflows. You will develop and test interoperable methods linking BIM, openBIM and IFC with building-energy models, Life-Cycle Assessment, whole-life-carbon calculations, circularity indicators, monitoring data, occupant feedback and Post-Occupancy Evaluation. You will investigate data continuity, traceability, uncertainty and interoperability across the design, construction and operational phases of buildings, and define information requirements and data structures for exchanging geometry, materials, environmental indicators, measured performance and occupant feedback across digital environments.

You will establish protocols for assessing the reliability, accuracy, completeness, reproducibility and usability of the proposed workflows. Using Smart Living Lab datasets and infrastructure, you will undertake full-scale testing, data collection, model calibration and scientific validation in Fribourg. You will compare predicted and simulated performance with measured environmental conditions and occupant experience, and collaborate with Building2050, relevant EPFL laboratories and ENAC research platforms, including PL-MTI where applicable. You will also support the scientific specification, testing and validation of APIs, connectors, data pipelines and interfaces in coordination with the project’s software-development partners, and assess the transferability of the methods across REGEN4BE demonstration sites and different building, climatic and institutional contexts.

As part of the doctoral thesis, you will apply and adapt the REGEN4BE framework to selected SONO housing projects and partnerships in Africa. You will develop BIM information structures for earth blocks, compressed and stabilised-earth systems, LC3-based blocks, mortars, concrete components and related assemblies, incorporating locally specific material and construction data. You will investigate BIM-to-BEM workflows for passive environmental performance, including thermal mass, solar protection, natural ventilation, indoor air movement, temperature, humidity and occupant-controlled openings. You will also develop BIM-linked LCA, whole-life-carbon and circularity methods for locally produced, low-carbon and repairable construction, determine which methods are transferable and which require adaptation to local climatic, material, economic, technical and social conditions, and translate the findings into design recommendations and decision-support methods for climate-responsive and regenerative housing.

Profile

• A Master’s degree in architecture, architectural engineering, building science, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, computational design, environmental engineering, or a related field
• Strong interest in the intersection of architectural design, building technology, environmental performance, and digital methods
• Experience with BIM workflows and an interest in open, interoperable digital environments, including IFC
• Knowledge or experience in one or more of the following areas:
  - building energy modelling and simulation;
  - Life Cycle Assessment;
  - embodied- and operational-carbon assessment;
  - circular construction;
  - building monitoring and Post-Occupancy Evaluation;
  - computational design;
  - building-data interoperability
• Strong data-analysis skills and the ability to work with heterogeneous datasets from digital models, simulations, environmental databases, sensors, surveys, and interviews

• Experience in scientific programming, scripting, or workflow automation. Knowledge of Python or an equivalent language is highly desirable
• Experience with APIs, databases, visual programming, parametric design, or data visualization is an asset.
  Interest in earth construction, low-carbon cementitious systems, LC3, passive environmental design, and housing in African contexts
• Interest in full-scale experimentation, Living Labs, and the links between research, design, construction, building operation, and occupant experience
• Ability to conduct fieldwork and collaborate with researchers, professionals, contractors, institutions, communities, and residents
• Capacity to formulate original research questions, develop rigorous validation methods, and communicate findings through peer-reviewed scientific publications
• Excellent written and spoken English; French is an asset
• Scientific autonomy, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to work effectively in an interdisciplinary and international research environment.

We offer

• Four years to complete your PhD, with competitive remuneration according to EPFL employment conditions
• Membership in the EPFL Doctoral Program in Architecture and Sciences of the City—EDAR, subject to formal admission by the programme
• An opportunity to develop a distinctive scientific profile at the intersection of regenerative design, building-data interoperability, environmental simulation, whole-life-carbon assessment, circular construction, building monitoring and low-carbon materials
• Participation in a major international Horizon Europe consortium involving academic, public, technical, design and industry partners
• A world-class research and training environment with access to the Smart Living Lab, Building2050 expertise and relevant EPFL research infrastructure
• Opportunities for full-scale experimentation, international collaboration and field research connected to SONO’s projects and partnerships
• A multicultural and stimulating working environment at EPFL’s Fribourg associated campus
• A one-year fixed-term contract, renewable annually for a total planned duration of four years, subject to satisfactory progress and applicable EPFL employment conditions.

Informations

The doctoral candidate will be based at the South–North Laboratory for Sustainable Construction and Conservation—SONO Lab, within EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, at the EPFL Fribourg associated campus. The thesis will be supervised by Prof. Aziza Chaouni.

The candidate will collaborate closely with, the REGEN4BE consortium; Smart Living Lab researchers and technical teams; Building2050; relevant EPFL laboratories and research platforms; SONO Lab’s academic and institutional partners in Africa; local researchers, professionals, construction partners, communities and building users involved in the selected case studies.

Application documents

Applications must include:

• A one-page motivation letter explaining your interest in the position and how your experience relates to the proposed research
• A detailed curriculum vitae, including your address, email and telephone number
• Copies of university diplomas and academic transcripts
• A research statement of no more than two pages outlining your relevant methodological experience and initial research interests
• One representative sample of relevant work, such as a publication, portfolio, thesis excerpt, research report, computational portfolio or technical project
• The names, affiliations and contact details of three referees willing to provide recommendations.

Please do not upload reference letters with the recruitment application. Only the referees’ names and contact details are required at this stage. They may later be contacted directly by the hiring manager. The separate EDAR application follows its own confidential recommendation procedure.

PhD application deadline: 15 September 2026
EDAR application deadline: 15 September 2026
Contract start date: 1 January 2027
Activity rate: 100%
Contract type: Fixed-term contract—CDD
Duration: Four years, from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2030

For questions regarding the scientific content of the position, please contact aziza.chaouni@epfl.ch.

Applications must be submitted through the official EPFL recruitment platform. Applications sent by email will not be considered formal applications