PhD Position in Experimental Furniture Making and Craft Techniques
Back to available jobsAt Malmstens, furniture design and craft are where tradition meets innovation. Hand tools meet CNC, wood meets biocomposites, and craft meets robotics. Together, we forge tomorrow’s design languages and sustainable methods in furniture design and craft. The future is in motion – how can analogue and digital craft spark new forms and strengthen education, research, and society?
Join us as a PhD student and help build tomorrow’s craft and design heritage. Craft the future!
Your work assignments
The aim of this doctoral position is to explore how new design languages and aesthetic expressions can emerge when classical furniture design principles and historical craft techniques intersect with today’s digital manufacturing possibilities.
By combining traditional furniture-making knowledge with e.g. CNC and robotic machining, additive manufacturing, and digital simulation, the research investigates how future aesthetics and methods of production might be shaped in this dynamic interplay between the analogue and the digital.
A central focus lies in the meeting of materials – how different wood species, biocomposites, and hybrid materials react and interact when processed with both traditional and computer-controlled techniques. Through practical experiments, the doctoral student will push the boundaries of these materials, uncovering new design expressions while deepening the understanding of sustainable processing in complex production chains.
Precision and resource efficiency are combined with the ambition to create aesthetically innovative results. The goal is to integrate functional and environmentally conscious solutions while simultaneously opening up new opportunities for formal experimentation.
The doctoral research also seeks to establish new methodologies that can be shared within education and research. By developing systematic process descriptions, open manuals, and pedagogical models, knowledge transfer in real time will be made possible, ensuring that results can quickly be applied in teaching, supervision, and collaborative projects at Malmstens.
As a PhD student, you devote most of your time to doctoral studies and the research projects of which you are part. Your work may also include teaching or other departmental duties, up to a maximum of 20 per cent of full-time.
Your qualifications
You have graduated at Master’s level in furniture design, industrial/product design, crafts, or technical design or completed courses with a minimum of 240 credits, at least 60 of which must be in advanced courses. Alternatively, you have gained essentially corresponding knowledge in another way. Your degree must be completed no later than the time when the employment decision is made.
Given that parts of the project are intended to be carried out through Research Through Design in close relation to experimental practice, it is meritorious if the applicant can demonstrate prior experience, either through professional work or student projects, in furniture design, craft, or experimental making. This can be shown in a digital portfolio (e.g. PDF, video, or website).
Further merit is given if the applicant has experience or interest in working with digital fabrication tools and visualization software such as CAD/CAM, or other platforms for exploring material and design processes.
As some of the scientific publications might be in English, good level of written and spoken English is required.
Your workplace
Malmstens Linköping University (MLU) is a creative hub for Furniture Design, Cabinetmaking, and Upholstery, rooted in Carl Malmsten’s vision of “hand and mind in vital collaboration.” On Campus Lidingö (Stockholm), students and researchers work in close connection with industry, carrying out projects that often result in prototypes and demonstrators. Its workshops, studios, and galleries provide an inspiring setting where craftsmanship and innovation flourish. At MLU, future makers shape not only furniture, but a meaningful and beautiful future through skilled hands and visionary ideas.
For more information about us: https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/iei/mlu
The employment
When taking up the post, you will be admitted to the program for doctoral studies. More information about the doctoral studies at each faculty is available at Doctoral studies at Linköping University
The employment has a duration of normally four years’ full-time equivalent. Extension of employment up to five years is based on the degree of teaching and institutional assignment. Further extensions may be granted in exceptional circumstances. You will initially be employed for one year, after which your employment will be renewed for a maximum of two years at a time, depending on your progress through the study plan.
Starting date by agreement.
Background screening may come to be carried out before any decision on employment is made.
Salary and employment benefits
The salary of PhD students is determined according to a locally negotiated salary progression.
More information about employment benefits at Linköping University is available here.
Union representatives
Information about union representatives, see Help for applicants.
Application procedure
Apply for the position by clicking the “Apply” button below. Your application must reach Linköping University no later than 22 December 2025.
Applications and documents received after the date above will not be considered.
We look forward to receiving your application!
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