For over 30 years, the University of Brighton has led the way in built environment research. From investigating the energy efficiency and performance of buildings, to examining the interrelationships between people, natural resources and the built environment, our staff and PhD students are at the leading edge of empirical and theoretical research into sustainable buildings and construction. We are also working to understand the shifting nature of education in the built environment to adapt to an ever changing industry.
The majority of our work has real-world application. Data generated by researchers in our Built Environment research group is being used, for example, to enhance the design of double-skin facades on buildings in order to improve their thermal performance, and to assess the impact of construction methods upon the provision of climate resilient affordable housing in Nigeria and Uganda.
The interdisciplinary ethos of the School of Environment and Technology (SET) provides an ideal home for this research. Based on the University’s Moulsecoomb Campus, SET has a vibrant community of 75 academic and research staff, and over 60 PhD students. Research within the School has a common aim to address key environmental, social and resource issues, and deliver translational research with local, regional and international benefits. Our staff expertise spans a range of disciplines, including built environment, civil engineering, environmental science, human and physical geography, archaeology, and geology.
We provide PhD students with opportunities to work across the spectrum of built environment research, including projects that straddles traditional disciplinary boundaries into, for example, architecture or engineering. We believe that this interdisciplinary focus provides our students with an appreciation of real-world problems, and ensures that they are highly employable.
As a built environment PhD student at Brighton, you will be able to draw on research approaches from a variety of cognate fields, including civil engineering, environmental science, and human geography. You can develop research plans and apply methods involving both quantitative and qualitative data, supported by appropriate research methods training.
PhD students form an integral part of SET and take an active role in a range of intellectual and social activities within the School. All postgraduate students working on built environment topics are integrated into one or more of our Research Centres or Research Groups (see below). These centres and groups provide you with opportunities to present ‘work in progress’ and network with other researchers.
As a built environment PhD student, you will benefit from a supervisory team comprising two to three members of academic staff. Depending on your research specialism you may also have an additional external supervisor from another School, another research institution, or industry.
PhD students within SET are able to use various pieces of state-of-the-art equipment, including suites of monitors and data loggers for the measurement of air permeability, irradiance, thermal performance and air quality within buildings. They also have access to a range of facilities on the Moulsecoomb site, including a water efficiency laboratory, specialist microbial and water quality laboratories, hydraulic flumes, an experimental river basin, geochemical and geotechnical laboratories, microscopy laboratories (optical and scanning electron microscopes), and a concrete laboratory, as well as a large array of field equipment. All of these facilities are supported by a team of dedicated laboratory and workshop technicians.
Our built environment PhD students have gone on to a variety of different roles following the successful completion of their research. These include academic posts as lecturers and postdoctoral research assistants at Brighton and elsewhere, plus research roles in, for example, the construction industry. Many have gone on to positions in industry, for example as senior consultants for facilities management contractors and as directors of construction companies.