PhD Position in AI Methods for Participatory Design of Smart, Energy-Flexible Buildings

Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL); Belgique; Hybrid; EUR 25,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully funded PhD position

Interdisciplinary environment

Conference participation support

Job summary

Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) invites applications for a dedicated PhD position in the Architecture and Climate group at LAB (Brussels Saint-Gilles). The project develops AI-assisted recommender systems for energy-aware building design, combining physics-informed ML surrogates with energy system planning and LLM-powered guidance.

The PhD focuses on participatory design, retrieves validated knowledge, and tests agentic tool use, with workshops and co-creation with real stakeholders,

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in energy engineering, electrical engineering, energy economics, computer science, civil/building engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with building energy, sustainable design or energy transition is advantageous.
• Programming experience (e.g., Python, Julia, or other); machine learning is a strong asset.

Responsibilities

• Review state-of-the-art ML-based surrogate models and AI recommender systems in building design.
• Design and prototype an LLM-based recommender system that combines RAG and agentic tool use (e.g. MCP) to query the simulation suite.
• Organise and run participatory workshops, and analyse results with qualitative and statistical methods.
• Publish in international journals and present at conferences.
• Contribute to teaching activities.

Skills

Python

Machine learning

Energy systems

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

Master’s degree in energy engineering, electrical engineering, energy economics, computer science, civil/building engineering, or related field

Tools

Python

Julia

LLM frameworks (RAG)

Job description

Louvain Research Institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built Environment

Organisation/Company Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) Department Louvain Research Institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built Environment Research Field Computer science Modelling tools Computer science Informatics Engineering Civil engineering Architecture Design Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 30 Nov 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Brussels) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

We seek a dedicated and highly motivated PhD student to join the Architecture and Climate group at the Louvain research institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built environment (LAB), UCLouvain, based at the Brussels Saint-Gilles campus. We study multi-energy flows in and around buildings and districts through integrated passive and active systems. Our work ranges from prototyping experimental cyber-physical building systems with a focus on occupant well-being, through the development of coupled simulation, optimization and artificial intelligence models, to participatory digital tools that put this work in the hands of planners and decision makers. Our objective is to advance the renewable energy transition, as well as material and energy circularity, by tackling the gaps and barriers that currently stand in the way of a future climate-proof, sustainable built environment.

The project
Buildings are evolving from passive energy consumers into grid-interactive “prosumers” that generate, store, share and flexibly shift energy. Their uptake, however, is held back by technical, economic and social barriers, and by a lack of decision support tools that give non-experts, such as building owners and occupants, access to expertise from engineering (grid operation and multi-energy systems) and economics (multi-period financial optimization) to make informed decisions. This PhD will develop and test an AI-assisted recommender system for the participatory design of smart, energy-flexible buildings and energy communities. It will combine physics-informed machine learning surrogate models for building performance with energy system planning and operation models (demand response, local energy sharing, dynamic tariffs and grid emissions), and Large Language Models that provide reliable design guidance by retrieving validated knowledge (Retrieval-Augmented Generation, RAG) and by directly calling the simulation and optimization models as tools (agentic workflows, e.g. via the Model Context Protocol, MCP). The framework will be applied to a Belgian energy community case study and evaluated in co-creation workshops with real stakeholders.

The objective is to understand real-world behavioral barriers relevant to sustainable building renovation and smart energy technologies, and to develop a decision support framework that addresses these barriers by empowering the stakeholders most affected by them: occupants and homeowners.

• Review state-of-the-art ML-based surrogate models and AI recommender systems in building design
• Design and prototype an LLM-based recommender system that combines RAG and agentic tool use (e.g. MCP) to query the simulation suite
• Organise and run participatory workshops, and analyse the results with qualitative and statistical methods
• Publish in international journals and present at conferences
• Contribute to teaching activities

Your profile

• Master’s degree in energy engineering, electrical engineering, energy economics, computer science, civil/building engineering, or a related field
• Strong interest in building energy, sustainable design and the energy transition
• Programming experience (e.g. Python, Julia, or other); experience with machine learning is a strong asset
• Familiarity with one or more of the following is a plus: building performance simulation; smart building technologies (e.g. heat pumps, PV, batteries, EV charging, home energy management systems); energy system modelling and optimization (e.g. linear/mixed-integer programming); power grids, demand response, flexibility markets or peer-to-peer energy trading; LLM frameworks (RAG, agents, tool use)
• Interest in interdisciplinary and participatory work with non-expert stakeholders
• Excellent command of English; French is an asset

We offer

• A fully funded 2-year PhD position through a FSR doctoral scholarship f or an initial period of 24 months. Progress will be reviewed during the doctoral programme and follow-up funding for additional 24 months will be sought jointly by the candidate and supervisor through relevant funding schemes.
• An interdisciplinary research environment at the intersection of architecture, energy and AI
• A network of academic and practice partners in Belgium and abroad
• Support for conference participation, training and research stays
• Remuneration and social benefits follow the applicable UCLouvain rules for doctoral scholarship holders.

Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute UCL-LOCI Site de Bruxelles de la Faculté d'architecture, d'ingénierie architecturale, d'urbanisme Country Belgium City Brussels Postal Code 1060 Street Rue Henri Wafelaerts 47/51, 1060 Saint-Gilles Geofield