PhD on the impact of outdoor lighting (and darkness) at cultural heritage sites

How to evaluate the broad impact that lighting and darkness at cultural heritage sites may have on residents and local communities? What methods and protocols ensure that such evaluations lead to generalizable insights that are beneficial to the larger community of lighting researchers and designers, while at the same time do justice to local needs and culture? How to address the appreciation of darkness as a possible valuable asset in outdoor lighting design? These are some of the scientific challenges of this PhD project.

This PhD position is part of a EU funded project called 'The Art of Darkness as Cultural Heritage of Urban Landscape'. The cultural, aesthetic and sustainability values of darkness should be considered in lighting design, especially for cultural heritage sites. The Art of Darkness project will realize and evaluate five pilot projects in five different countries through a multidisciplinary and participatory approach that emphasizes lighting design not as mere technological, but a cultural design task. In doing so, the Art of Darkness, adopts the principles of New Bauhaus: Together, sustainable, and beautiful; reflecting a design process that has inclusivity, community involvement, green transitions, and an integration of science and the arts at its core.

You will conduct your research within the Human-Technology Interaction group (HTI) at TU/e, which has a long history in lighting research and applications, and the TU/e Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI)—a multi-disciplinary community of lighting researchers at TU/e and beyond. HTI  leads the 'Evaluation' work package that executes, in close collaboration with consortium partners, mid-term and end-of-trial evaluations and of both the process and the impact of the lighting design on residents and the local community of the design.

You will focus in particular on a) developing an evaluation methodology that goes beyond the typical functional aspects of lighting (i.e., its effect on visibility, and pedestrian safety and reassurance) to more broader, and perhaps more difficult to quantify outcomes (e.g., the lived experience of places, darkness appreciation, sense of community), and b) analyzing and reporting on data collected by partners at each pilot site. Needless to say, this requires the combining of existing knowledge and methods—quantitative and qualitative—from the wide variety of disciplines that are involved, as partners, in the Art of Darkness project.

Requirements:

• A master's degree (or an equivalent university degree) in environmental psychology, lighting research, human-technology interaction, or urban planning.
• A research-oriented attitude.
• Proficient in data analysis (both qualitative and quantitative).
• Great planning skills and decisiveness.
• Sensitive to differences between scientific disciplines and cultures, and an open-mindedness to methods and approaches from outside your core discipline.
• The ability to work in an interdisciplinary team and to collaborate with societal stakeholders (e.g., municipalities and local communities).
• Willingness to travel abroad (for site visits, field research and/or consortium meetings).
• Motivated to develop your teaching skills and coach students.
• Fluent in spoken and written English (C1 level).

Salary Benefits:

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. €2,872 max. €3,670).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.

38 hours per week

De Rondom 70