The SXL is hiring!

The SXL is looking for bright-minded, talented, and passionate graduates to take part in its world-leading efforts in making component reuse techniques a new reality for sustainable construction. The call is related to two projects and four positions:

1. “Measures of the Reuse Potential of Architectural Components, with application to Switzerland”: 2 Phd positions starting in September 2020, and 1 fully-funded postdoc stay (15 months) starting in the course of 2021.
2. “Form-Finding Techniques for Upcycling Structures”: 1 PhD position starting early 2021.

Candidates are expected: to hold an outstanding track record in Architecture, Structural Engineering, or any related field; to have an insatiable appetite for architectural design, construction techniques and computational methods; and to think and create outside the box. Excellent proficiency in English is required. Good knowledge of French or German is a plus.

Selected candidates will join the research and teaching activities of the Structural Xploration Lab (SXL), EPFL. Over the past years, the SXL has distinguished itself as a leader for designing load-bearing solutions for a circular economy. The SXL is driven by sustainability challenges, rooted in history, embracing complexity, and boosted by digital technology. The SXL is located in Fribourg, Switzerland, and is part of the smart living lab. Doctoral studies at EPFL last 4 years and are fully paid with highly competitive salaries compared to other universities. EPFL regulations for PhDs are available here and here.

Applications must be sent to [email protected]. Deadline for sending PhD applications related to project 1 is July 1^st, 2020. Submission of applications for the other positions will remain open until filled. Candidates are invited to wait for Prof. Fivet's informal green light prior to applying to a doctoral school.

Description of the research projects:

Following the recent rise of environmental consciousness, the reuse of building components in new architecture projects is currently seen as a promising approach to achieve greater sustainability in the construction industry. Whereas recycling generates new products from scrap, component reuse extends the service life of existing products by reclaiming them as a whole and in new layouts, exploiting the most out of all their pre-existing functional and technical features. Pushed forward by the European Union and gaining impetus across the globe, component reuse constitutes a key strategy towards a circular economy. Yet, it is today the strategy that is the furthest away from being implemented in the construction practice.

Project 1, “Measures of the Reuse Potential of Architectural Components, with application to Switzerland”:

The following gaps currently impede public authorities and practitioners from properly assessing the potential of reuse, with respect to environmental and economic impacts: lack of in-depth, fact-based knowledge about component reuse in past architecture; lack of proven criteria and metrics to assess the reuse potential of building components; and lack of benchmarks to characterize the potential gains and losses of a large-scale application of building component reuse. This project aims at filling these gaps by applying big data techniques to fine-grained building stocks, taking Switzerland as a case study. Results will comprise forefront computational methods as well as ready-to-use data for rigorously assessing, and hence improving, the application of circular building techniques in existing and future urban areas.

Project 2, “Form-Finding Techniques for Upcycling Structures”:

Component reuse is a new paradigm for the design of architectural structures. Rather than following a top-down design process from system layout to component manufacturing, the reuse process seeks to define the most appropriate system from a given set of components (members and/or connections) that have fixed geometries and material compositions. The revolution calls for new computational design techniques as well as new construction detailing. This project aims at addressing both challenges simultaneously in order to ease the generation of architectural structures from reclaimed components and/or the generation of component stocks with great reuse potential elsewhere.