In her PhD studies, Mia Kruse Rasmussen explores social value creation in the built environment. Based on fieldwork in the Danish building industry, she argues that existing short-term value framings and the strong separation between ‘building-as-project’ and ‘building-as-lived-space’ challenge social value creation in existing project practice and proposes a relational values approach as a different path forward. Social commissioning is developed as a framework for supporting social value creation (in building projects and beyond) based on this relational values approach. If we want to understand and work with social aspects of building performance, and support social value creation in the built environment, we should view buildings and values relationally, rather than as static entities with a defined set of attributes that can be measured and evaluated in absolute numeric values, because value creation requires ongoing work.

The PhD study was completed at the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering – Building Science, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday, 8 November 2024, at 13:00 – 16:00
Place: Navitas, room 03.050 (3rd floor), Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus C.
Title of PhD thesis: Social Commissioning – a relational approach to social value creation in the built environment
Contact information: Mia Kruse Rasmussen, e-mail: mra@aart.dk, tel.: +45 41963513
Members of the assessment committee
Research Fellow Eli Hatleskog, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Associate Professor Mette Kjærsgaard, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Associate Professor Massimo Fiorentini (chair), Department of civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University 
Main supervisor:
Professor Steffen Petersen, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering – Building Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor:,
Head of Research Group and Senior Researcher Marie Stender, Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Denmark
Company-supervisor:
Partner and Head of impact Johanne Mose Entwistle, AART, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C.

The defence can be viewed online. To receive a link to the event, please contact: mra@aart.dk