PhD in Civil Engineering - Cities, Infrastructure and Energy

University of Leeds

Our Cities, Infrastructure & Energy systems are at the forefront of sustainable development challenges faced by societies. We aim to reduce climate change and improve resilience of the built environment and city infrastructure through multi and transdisciplinary studies. We bring innovations in low carbon and circular built environment, while seeking to ensure the health and wellbeing of occupants. We increase capacity of infrastructure systems to mitigate and adapt to future climate changes and develop managerial solutions to deliver these innovations. We deliver our projects with strong national and international collaborations. Our topics covers the following strands: Architecture - Architecture and Architectural engineering play a key role in achieving the sustainable development of our built-environment. Our research takes multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable buildings, low carbon design, low impact materials and waste minimization, relationships between occupant behaviours, health, wellbeing and building performance. We contribute to the climate emergency by developing award winning technical innovations in low carbon construction systems coupling efficiency, resiliency, design for deconstruction and reuse, and advanced/ robotic manufacturing. We also approach architecture and urbanism with multiple theoretical and empirical discourses to create impact and knowledge on design and practice, and communities within the Global South. We are particularly interested in using the arts and humanities methodologies to unfold complex topics on urban and digital heritage, Participatory Action Research (PAR), co-production processes, socio-spatial studies, memory, culture, preservation, regeneration, digital mapping and living labs. Circular economy - A circular economy is crucial for sustainable development. It includes efforts to minimise resource use, prevent waste and optimise the social, environmental, technical and economic values of products, components and materials throughout their consecutive lifecycles. Circular economy involves design for reduced resource balanced with durability, modular design that enables the repairing, reusing, repurposing and remanufacturing of components and high quality recycling.