PhD Research Fellowship "Comfort and the Interior"
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO)
Maridalsveien 29, 0175 OSLO
21. desember 2025
TO
PhD Research Fellowship "Comfort and the Interior"
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO)
OSLO
21. desember 2025
Om stillingen
The Institute of Architecture offers a PhD position to study the forces that have shaped architectural interiors in the past, that shape them today and will shape them in the future. The architectural, environmental and cultural practices that shape interiors are complex, conditioned by temporally varying categories such as “comfort”, by changing technologies associated with building, by legislation and by building physics. Today, the macro-level climate crisis poses new questions about this interior microclimate, questions that are at once technical (connected to light, heat, ventilation and construction), legislative (connected to the regulative expectations imposed on interiors), and cultural (concerned with social expectations of dress, furnishing, habitation and personal wellbeing). What we want the candidate to explore, essentially, is this contemporary culture of comfort at the intersection of future demands and care for historical interiors. Understanding these assemblies requires analyses that are both historically informed and technically advanced.
Proposals for this PhD may use lenses from architectural history, history of technology, building technology, preservation or cultural studies to frame this investigation into the territory of the interior. If in architecture, interiors describe the space between occupants and building fabrics, one purpose here is to study the assembly of supports that create those spaces. Such expanded approaches to the interior could include forensic analysis of 17th-century painted chambers or research on the contemporary development of building envelopes; they could include historical studies of legislation relating to interiors or practice-related work that investigates new environmental models for interior occupation.
We look for applicants with strong and original project ideas, either within humanities-based architectural research or in architectural technology and projective practice. The project will develop within the framework of AHO's research group for Circular Architecture and Material Flows. It will relate to ongoing doctoral projects within the Oslo Centre for Critical Architectural Studies at the Institute of Architecture (OCCAS): http://occas.aho.no).
The PhD project will be supervised by Prof. Tim Anstey
The candidate must have
Applicants from countries outside the Nordic region must be able to document English proficiency as follows:
Applicants with the following documentation are exempt from the English requirement:
It is an advantage if the candidate has:
The material for the PhD application will be assessed according to the following criteria:
About the candidate / Personal characteristics
Information meeting
The PhD Programme at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) will arrange an online information webinar about the AHO PhD Programme 22 January at 15:00 CET. Click this link to register for the Zoom webinar.
The application must include
The application with all attachments must be submitted electronically via Jobbnorge.no. Applications that do not comply with the formal requirements will not be considered. Attachments beyond the required documents will not be taken into consideration.
Formal regulations:
The educational component in the AHO PhD Programme is mandatory and requires fulltime attendance. Residency in Oslo for the employment period is mandatory. Research stay at a relevant international academic institution is encouraged. The PhD fellowship will start September 1, 2026.
No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the AHO.
The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.
AHO values diversity and encourages qualified candidates to apply regardless of age, gender, or background. Arrangements will be made for applicants with disabilities.
The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to AHO.
A public applicant list may be published even if the applicant has requested an exemption, cf. Section 25 of the Freedom of Information Act. Applicants will be notified in advance.
Questions about this PhD position can be directed to the main supervisor:
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Om stillingen
The Institute of Architecture offers a PhD position to study the forces that have shaped architectural interiors in the past, that shape them today and will shape them in the future. The architectural, environmental and cultural practices that shape interiors are complex, conditioned by temporally varying categories such as “comfort”, by changing technologies associated with building, by legislation and by building physics. Today, the macro-level climate crisis poses new questions about this interior microclimate, questions that are at once technical (connected to light, heat, ventilation and construction), legislative (connected to the regulative expectations imposed on interiors), and cultural (concerned with social expectations of dress, furnishing, habitation and personal wellbeing). What we want the candidate to explore, essentially, is this contemporary culture of comfort at the intersection of future demands and care for historical interiors. Understanding these assemblies requires analyses that are both historically informed and technically advanced.
Proposals for this PhD may use lenses from architectural history, history of technology, building technology, preservation or cultural studies to frame this investigation into the territory of the interior. If in architecture, interiors describe the space between occupants and building fabrics, one purpose here is to study the assembly of supports that create those spaces. Such expanded approaches to the interior could include forensic analysis of 17th-century painted chambers or research on the contemporary development of building envelopes; they could include historical studies of legislation relating to interiors or practice-related work that investigates new environmental models for interior occupation.
We look for applicants with strong and original project ideas, either within humanities-based architectural research or in architectural technology and projective practice. The project will develop within the framework of AHO's research group for Circular Architecture and Material Flows. It will relate to ongoing doctoral projects within the Oslo Centre for Critical Architectural Studies at the Institute of Architecture (OCCAS): http://occas.aho.no).
The PhD project will be supervised by Prof. Tim Anstey
The candidate must have
Applicants from countries outside the Nordic region must be able to document English proficiency as follows:
Applicants with the following documentation are exempt from the English requirement:
It is an advantage if the candidate has:
The material for the PhD application will be assessed according to the following criteria:
About the candidate / Personal characteristics
Information meeting
The PhD Programme at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) will arrange an online information webinar about the AHO PhD Programme 22 January at 15:00 CET. Click this link to register for the Zoom webinar.
The application must include
The application with all attachments must be submitted electronically via Jobbnorge.no. Applications that do not comply with the formal requirements will not be considered. Attachments beyond the required documents will not be taken into consideration.
Formal regulations:
The educational component in the AHO PhD Programme is mandatory and requires fulltime attendance. Residency in Oslo for the employment period is mandatory. Research stay at a relevant international academic institution is encouraged. The PhD fellowship will start September 1, 2026.
No one can be appointed for more than one PhD Research Fellowship period at the AHO.
The appointment may be shortened/given a more limited scope within the framework of the applicable guidelines on account of any previous employment in academic positions.
AHO values diversity and encourages qualified candidates to apply regardless of age, gender, or background. Arrangements will be made for applicants with disabilities.
The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to AHO.
A public applicant list may be published even if the applicant has requested an exemption, cf. Section 25 of the Freedom of Information Act. Applicants will be notified in advance.
Questions about this PhD position can be directed to the main supervisor:
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