JOB DESCRIPTION

Across Europe, thousands of office buildings remain underutilised or vacant while the demand for affordable and social housing continues to rise. Converting these spaces into housing can significantly contribute to circular urban transformation, reducing material waste, limiting carbon emissions, and extending the lifespan of existing structures. However, such conversions face multiple barriers—economic, regulatory, technical, and social—that slow down their adoption. These barriers often emerge from misaligned incentives, fragmented decision-making, and rigid regulatory frameworks that prioritise new construction over reuse.
Despite growing interest in circular strategies, real estate developers, municipalities, and affordable housing providers still lack structured approaches and decision-support frameworks that can guide them in assessing the feasibility of office-to-housing conversions. Key challenges include determining which buildings are suitable for conversion, navigating legal and financial constraints, and integrating material reuse into construction. Without clear and feasible strategies, many promising projects stall before implementation, and conversion remains the exception rather than the norm.
The Circular Building Convert project seeks to address these challenges by developing joint strategies and action plans that support the large-scale adoption of office-to-housing conversions. This includes decision-support frameworks, policy recommendations, and tools that empower local authorities, developers, and housing associations to make informed choices about conversion projects.
As a PhD researcher, you will investigate the interplay between decision-making processes, regulatory frameworks, and circular strategies in office-to-housing conversions. Your research will contribute to the development of structured decision-support tools, identifying the economic, environmental, and legal conditions that enable or hinder adaptive reuse projects.

Your key research questions may include:

• How do decision-makers (including but not limited to investors, policymakers, and social housing associations) evaluate the feasibility of office-to-housing conversion projects?
• What factors—technical, economic, societal, and policy-related—influence their choices?
• How can decision-support frameworks facilitate the widespread adoption of circular conversion strategies?
• Which strategic interventions and incentive structures are needed to accelerate the transition toward office-to-housing reuse?

To answer these questions, you will employ qualitative and quantitative methods, including policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, case study comparisons, and participatory research with municipalities and real estate developers. You will collaborate closely with the Circular Building Convert project consortium, engaging with stakeholders across multiple European regions. Your research will contribute directly to the project’s objective of developing a joint strategy integrating feasibility assessments, business models, and policy recommendations for office-to-housing conversions. Beyond traditional research methods, you will take part in co-creation processes with public and private actors, contributing to the development of actionable strategies that will be tested and refined through project pilots. Your work will bridge academic insights with real-world implementation, ensuring that findings are not only theoretically robust but also practically useful for stakeholders working on the ground.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

We are looking for a highly motivated and independent researcher with an interdisciplinary mindset.

This project may be an excellent fit for you if you have:

• An MSc degree in architecture, construction management, environmental studies, urban planning, or a related field.
• Excellent knowledge of circular economy principles, sustainable development, or policy frameworks related to housing and real estate.
• Strong skills in mixed research methods.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to translate research findings into actionable recommendations.
• Strong communication skills and are comfortable engaging with policymakers, real estate professionals, and community stakeholders.
• Proficiency in English (C1 level or higher) and ideally another language relevant to the project (Dutch or French).

We encourage you to apply if you are passionate about driving circularity in the built environment and shaping actions for a more sustainable and resilient future.

Please refer the Job description for details