aw is hiring:
DESIGNER RESEARCHER (m/f) Architecture Workroom Brussels (AW) wants to strengthen its team with a designer researcher, in view of several ongoing projects.You will be part of a dynamic and committed team of architects and researchers.You will offer support in managing, supervising and implementing one or more projects within AW. Job description AW employees share at least one specific undeniable similarity: they have a design-oriented background and / or have a strong affinity for space, architecture or the future of city and landscape. Based on this shared motivation, the team performs various tasks depending on the various initiatives and processes: in addition to cultural production (exhibitions, publications, etc.), this also includes ‘design research’ (test sites, regional explorations, etc.), and ‘making substantive progress’ and (supervising) managing knowledge sharing and development, initiation and exploration processes for new transformation programs, policy, etc. For this vacancy we are looking for that first profile in view of a number of ongoing and new processes in which design research plays a prominent role. Translation to concrete space is crucial within all AW’s projects. Not in the least because many of the clients are local and regional governments who are faced with certain challenges whose spatial impact they want to have investigated and translated into innovative development visions. These studies often relate to the major transition and climate challenges related to housing, energy, mobility, care, food, soil, water, biodiversity, circularity, or in many cases several of these challenges simultaneously. Linking these themes, uncovering and visualizing the actual problem definition, the search for spatial, economic or social synergies and their translation into sustainable and promising development strategies are therefore the main lines of action within such design research, often on different scales simultaneously: ranging from a global scale to that of the decentralized urbanized delta area of the Rhine, Maas and Scheldt (also
Architecture Workroom Brussels European Centre for Innovation in Architecture and Urbanism
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known as the Eurodelta), from that of the city and its outskirts to the level of the neighbourhood, the building block and the building. In many AW projects, this designer view is supported by a participatory part. This approach aims at capturing and synthesizing as many wishes, needs and dynamics possible, which affect the broad field of actors specific to this type of project: from groups of residents to citizens’ initiatives, from local to national governments, landowners to developers, from farmers to port companies, from entrepreneurs to cultural institutions. The support that AW is looking for in the field of design research involves the following tasks: - the cartographic analysis of the research area, at the various scales mentioned above, in which speculative imagination is often just as important as scientific substantiation; - the design and spatial approach of the problem to the development of a high-profile and supported narrative; - applying this cartography and narrative in workshops with design agencies, entrepreneurs, governments, citizens, experts, etc.; - linking different challenges and opportunities to concrete spatial strategies, concepts and interventions, and being able to communicate these based on clear and graphically strong images and diagrams; - translating the results of the design research into policy advice and other recommendations; - continuous training in current affairs and design practice, with special attention to innovative and socially relevant spatial concepts and “best practices”. Profile We are looking for highly motivated, enthusiastic and talented candidates: