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Applications are invited for a self-funded, 3 year full-time or 6 year part-time PhD project.

The PhD will be based in the School of Architecture and will be supervised by Dr Rokhshid Ghaziani.

The coronavirus has been a loud wake-up call for education (Nair, 2020). The impact of the pandemic and related restrictions prognoses detrimental effects for mental health and wellbeing of the population (Xiong et al., 2020). How this collective traumatic event (Muldoon, 2020) has affected children - the youngest and the most vulnerable members of society - is yet to be understood. Resilience, a critical capacity that individuals can rely on in times of crisis to continue to thrive (Raghavan et al., 2019), underpins children’s ability to negotiate the difficulties of rapidly changing COVID-19 reality. Therefore, being able to harness and develop this capacity in young children is crucial for their long-term thriving in the post-pandemic world.

Beneficial and healing relationship between nature and human functioning is well established. Within an educational setting, nature provides a calm and safe context for learning by improving learners’ attention, reducing stress, and increasing curiosity (Kue et al., 2019). Existing frameworks for biophilic design (Kellert, 2008, 2018; Terrapin, 2014) support implementation on nature design in architecture. However, the focus has been solely on adult spaces, missing the opportunity for sustainable impact on wellbeing of generations by omitting schools as crucial context of implementation.

The Government Report Children and Young People’s Mental Health envisages the role of schools expanding to support mental health of children especially during the challenging transition post-pandemic reality. Yet, our preliminary consultations with children and young people tell a story of challenges in schools being able to meet these expectations. Therefore, an interdisciplinary research project is needed to develop innovative solutions in reimagining school context post-pandemic through biophilic design that will develop children’s resilience. 

This research project aims to develop innovative user-centred solutions in reimagining school context during and post-pandemic through biophilic design that will support children’s resilience and wellbeing.

The main research question for the study is: “How can biophilic design be utilised in a school setting for long term child resilience and wellbeing development and support?” The study will utilise participatory research methodology to include children in the school to:  

• evaluate the importance of various biophilic design patterns in primary schools, 
• explore the relationship between biophilic design patterns and children’s wellbeing and resilience during and post COVID.

This PhD project, therefore, explores a long-term intervention model (guideline) for a post-pandemic recovery and resilience of primary school children through school typology innovation. Resulting framework will benefit designers, architects, and social scientists for (i) meaningful school renovations and new developments and (ii) context-based interventions for recovery and resilience.

Fees and funding

How to apply

We’d encourage you to contact Dr Rokhshid Ghaziani (Rokhshid.Ghaziani@port.ac.uk) o discuss your interest before you apply, quoting the project code.

When applying please quote project code ARCH4590424.