The Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the TU Delft is seeking a Professor for the chair of Architecture Theory of the Department of Architecture. The field of architecture theory has traditionally played a central role in the TU Delft research and education under the guidance of prominent academics such as Alexander Tzonis and Arie Graafland. This full-time position is a continuation of the longstanding engagement with the theory of architecture, including the theory of urban design and landscape architecture.
The chair of Architecture Theory focuses on the relationships between the discursive and the material practices. In particular, it deals with the development of theories associated to the design disciplines (architecture, urbanism, landscape architecture) from a broad range of perspectives and fields of thought that critically examine and interrogate material practices as part of a wider societal, cultural, ethical and politico-economic context.
The chair concentrates on establishing relevant connections between the design and the materialization of the built environment, and the theoretical and philosophical fields. It thus deals with specific developments in theory, philosophy, geography, sociology, politics, economics, psychology, aesthetics or ethics, that are crucial to the formulation of conceptual, methodological and affective understandings of the built environment and the role of the design disciplines in its creation.
The chair is expected to study and develop –both in research and education- a framework of architectural theory that can play an important role for contemporary design practice in the Netherlands and beyond. In research and education the chair examines doctrines of the past and present, the investigation of thinking in select architectural groups, offices and guidelines, as well as inquiries into ethico-aesthetics. With around 50% of international students in the Department of Architecture, the chair of Architecture Theory will situate architectural theory within a wider framework of transcultural and transnational developments.
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