PhD Position in Civil Engineering and Architecture

Organisation/Company

Tallinn University of Technology

Research Field

Architecture » Other
Engineering » Civil engineering

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Application Deadline

17 Apr 2026 - 20:59 (UTC)

Country

Estonia

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Horizon Europe

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Employer: Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), School of Engineering
Location: Estonia, Tallinn, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086
Job type: Early stage researcher, full-time temporary employment
Research field: Engineering, Civil Engineering, Architecture
Application deadline: 17.04.2026

Tallinn University of Technology School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture offers a 4-year PhD position in Building and Civil Engineering and Architecture.

The proposed PhD thesis topic: “Dynamic outdoor thermal comfort assessment to enhance user experience along urban pathways in a Nordic climate”

Supervisors:

• Sup. Senior Researcher Dr. Francesco De Luca, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies
• Co-Sup. Tenured Full Professor Kimmo Lylykangas, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies

Summary

The PhD project will investigate methodologies for assessing dynamic thermal comfort along cycling and walking pathways in urban areas in the Nordic climate of Estonia, considering the potentially competing objectives of guaranteeing thermal comfort throughout all seasons. The project will be developed by integrating parametric urban design with microclimate simulations and measurements, GIS and Digital Twin technologies, and machine learning. The work will be part of a Horizon pilot project aimed at realizing a scenario-based platform for the interactive and comprehensive evaluation of design solutions and mitigation strategies to enhance user experience along cycling and walking pathways.  

Description

State of the art and research gaps 

The accessibility and long-term sustainability of urban environments depend on robust methodologies capable of evaluating outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) under heterogeneous conditions. Metrics such as PET and UTCI have considerably improved the capacity to capture the spatial variability of outdoor thermal comfort across complex urban environments. However, despite their widespread application, current approaches are mainly calibrated for near-stationary exposures, limiting their suitability for evaluating the thermal experience of individuals in motion. Transitions between microclimates do not correspond to immediate changes in perceived comfort because human thermoregulation responds gradually to altered conditions. While recent studies have begun to explore spatio-temporal variability in thermal perception, comprehensive and standardised methodologies that integrate both spatial and temporal dynamics remain limited. This gap constrains the capacity to assess dynamic exposure conditions along mobility corridors and limits the reliability of design evaluations.

Pedestrian heat stress during the warm season is rising significantly also in the continental climate of Nordic cities. In the cold season, winter winds can intensify cold stress and wind chill. Urban morphology, surface materials, and vegetation can greatly enhance the livability of the urban environment by improving local microclimatic conditions. However, existing studies are largely limited to investigating mitigation strategies and design solutions for isolated conditions—either heat or cold—typically assessed over representative or extreme weeks, or during a single season. There remains a lack of methodologies capable of integrating the competing objectives of reducing both heat stress and cold stress, particularly in regions characterised by frequent winds.

Current workflows and tools for assessing the impact of microclimate on user experience and for evaluating design solutions and mitigation strategies present several shortcomings. Microclimate analysis is often conducted without a proper assessment of its effects on thermal comfort, or appropriate OTC metrics are applied only to evaluate thermal sensation under near-stationary conditions. Solutions and strategies are typically assessed for a single objective—such as reducing heat stress during the warm season or improving thermal comfort during the cold season—yet measures targeting one problem can worsen user experience under other conditions. Most available tools are developed primarily for analytical purposes, and those capable of accurate microclimate assessment tend to be accessible only to experts rather than planners and decision makers. Accurate tools generally require very long simulation times, whereas existing simplified methods do not provide sufficiently actionable scenarios for practical urban design applications.

Research questions and objectives

The PhD project will address the following research questions: Which reliable methodologies can be developed to assess dynamic outdoor thermal comfort while incorporating spatio-temporal variations in urban environments? What mitigation strategies and designs involving urban form, materiality, and nature-based solutions can provide thermal comfort throughout the year in a Nordic climate? Is it possible to predict dynamic outdoor thermal comfort with sufficient accuracy using fast parametric algorithms and machine learning (ML) models instead of time-consuming simulations to evaluate scenarios for improving the user experience along cycling and walking paths during different seasons? To answer these research questions, the PhD work will pursue the following objectives.

Objective 1 — Develop methodologies for assessing dynamic outdoor thermal comfort in a Nordic climate.

This objective aims to contribute to establishing a scientifically robust framework for characterising outdoor thermal comfort under dynamic exposure conditions. The work will integrate high-resolution microclimate simulations, on-site environmental measurements, GIS-based spatial analyses, and established human–bioclimate indices to describe how thermal environments evolve as individuals move through urban spaces. A particular focus will be the temporal dynamics of human thermal response, acknowledging that shifts in body temperature occur over adaptation periods rather than instantaneously and are influenced by activity. The resulting methodology is expected to overcome the limitations of near-static comfort assessments. Ultimately, this objective will provide a reliable basis for evaluating user experience along cycling and walking paths, enabling accurate interpretation of thermal variability across space and time.

Objective 2 — Find mitigation strategies, design solutions and parameters for year-round thermal comfort.

This objective focuses on developing parametric design workflows to systematically evaluate how urban form, surface materiality, and vegetation influence dynamic outdoor thermal comfort across seasons. The analysis will integrate actual and future climate data, on-site environmental measurements, and outputs from microclimate simulation tools to characterise changes in dynamic thermal response along walking and cycling routes. Particular attention will be given to the interactions between design strategies and seasonal climatic and microclimatic dynamics, as well as to the trade-offs between the potentially competing objectives of reducing summer heat stress and winter cold stress influenced by the frequent winds. The objective aims to generate year-round climate-responsive design strategies, while producing structured spatio-temporal datasets that will serve as input for realising predictive models.

Objective 3 — Realize predictive tools for scenario-based assessment of dynamic outdoor thermal comfort.

This objective aims to reduce the computational demands of microclimate simulations and thermal comfort analyses by developing fast parametric algorithms and data-driven surrogate modelling approaches capable of predicting dynamic outdoor thermal comfort with high accuracy. Parametric algorithms and ML models trained on simulation-derived and measured datasets will approximate key microclimate variables and associated human–bioclimatic responses across a wide range of spatial and temporal variations, vegetation configurations, and activity conditions. These predictive tools will support the rapid generation and comparison of alternative urban design scenarios. The objective contributes to creating an interactive, scenario-based tool to assess the impact of microclimate on user experience and to enable real-time exploration of design interventions for early-stage planning and decision-making in Nordic urban environments.

Responsibilities and tasks

• Investigate, through a literature review, the state of the art, research gaps, and current research directions in the assessment of dynamic outdoor thermal comfort.
• Develop a robust methodology capable of evaluating spatio-temporal variations of outdoor thermal comfort along cycling and walking paths in a Nordic environment.
• Develop parametric design workflows integrating urban morphologies, surface materiality, vegetation, actual and future climate data, microclimatic simulations, and OTC metrics.
• Conduct environmental and microclimatic measurements.
• Determine mitigation strategies and design scenarios, including nature-based solutions, to fulfil the competing objectives involved in enhancing dynamic thermal comfort during different seasons.
• Extract structured spatio-temporal datasets related to urban form, material properties, vegetation, climate and microclimate, and dynamic thermal comfort response.
• Develop fast parametric algorithms and ML models for outdoor thermal comfort prediction and analysis.
• Collaborate in the programming and development of a scenario-based platform.

 Applicants should fulfil the following requirements:

• Master’s degree in architecture or civil engineering.
• Clear interest in the topic of the position.
• Excellent command of English spoken and written.
• Strong and demonstrable writing and analytical skills.
• Capacity to work both as an independent researcher and as part of an international team.
• Capacity and willingness to provide assistance in organizational tasks relevant to the project.

The following experience is beneficial

• Knowledge of urban energy balance processes and radiative exchange mechanisms.
• Knowledge of human thermal comfort theory and bioclimatic indices.
• Ability to perform microclimate simulations with state-of-the-art tools (e.g., ENVI-met, SOLWEIG).
• High proficiency with parametric design environments and environmental analysis tools (e.g., Eddy3D/OpenFOAM, ClimateStudio/EnergyPlus, Ladybug Tools/Radiance).
• Proficiency in programming languages relevant for environmental modelling and workflow automation (e.g., Python, C#), or strong motivation and capacity to acquire these skills.
• Competence in data processing, statistical analysis, and the development of ML models, or a clear willingness to gain such expertise.
• Experience with GIS-based spatial analysis, or a clear willingness to gain such expertise.
• Experience in conducting microclimate and environmental field measurements.

Application procedure

The information for the PhD admission is available at TalTech´s web-page: https://taltech.ee/en/phd-admission

The following application documents should be sent to francesco.deluca@taltech.ee  

• CV
• Motivation letter
• Degree certificates as required by the university
• A research plan for the topic, including the overall research and data collection strategy
• Copy of the passport

We offer:

• 4-year PhD position in one of the largest, most internationalized and leading civil engineering and architecture research centers in Estonia with a large portfolio of ongoing European and national built environment sustainability, building digitalization and energy efficiency projects.
• The chance to do high-level research in one of the most dynamic research contexts globally.
• Opportunities for conference visits and networking with globally leading universities and research centers in the fields of built environment sustainability, digitalization and energy efficiency.

Funding

The PhD is funded through the EU Horizon Europe Climate-neutral and Smart Cities Missions project  COdesign urban REalm & dynamic Spaces management for cognitive & socially connected cities, Tallinn University of Technology pilot MTAR4 – Microclimate.

Time and place

The PhD project duration will be 4 years from March 2026 to February 2030. The affiliation of the PhD candidate will be the Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies of Tallinn University of Technology.

Website

https://academicpositions.com/ad/tallinn-university-of-technology/2026/phd-posi…

Research Field

Architecture

Years of Research Experience

1 - 4

Research Field

Engineering

Years of Research Experience

1 - 4

Website for additional job details

https://academicpositions.com

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Tallinn University of Technology

Country

Estonia

City

Tallinn

Postal Code

19086

Street

Ehitajate tee 5

Geofield

City

Tallinn

Website

http://www.ttu.ee/en

Postal Code

19086

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