Dr Andrea Armstrong - Pulinx (A.E.)
Dr Andrea Armstrong is an experienced researcher currently working at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute on the Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) funded Consumer Demand and Circular Urban Living (CDCUL) project. The project examines whether, and the extent to which, individuals in different European contexts are willing to pay for urban housing amenities that encourage sharing. One pathway toward achieving the low-consumption goals of the Circular Economy is by sharing appliances, spaces, and facilities that are typically owned and accessed by isolated households.
We will also examine in which contexts and with which customer segments housing developers and architects can profit by encouraging amenity sharing among residents.
Results will be compared to existing residential design standards and shared with building and design professionals to determine how sharing opportunities can be integrated systematically into future residential building projects. The study will use online surveys that help determine consumer preferences plus in-depth qualitative methods to examine how opportunities to share appliances, spaces, and other facilities influences individuals’ willingness to pay for urban housing. We will draw from large, randomized samples of adults in three countires: Sweden, The Netherlands, and Slovenia to determine how consumers' willingness to pay for residential sharing varies across international contexts. Sampling will allow researchers to test the influences of respondents' age, gender, income, household structure, and urban/suburban/rural location to identify potential customer segments for circular housing. Researchers from all three countries will collaborate with housing developers, architects, urban public authorities, and special interest groups to co-design survey items and data collection methods so that results offer insights into existing and upcoming residential development projects. Understanding whether, where, and among what types of customers the demand for circular housing solutions already exists could help encourage the production of circular housing options and speed up transitions for sustainability.
Dr Andrea Armstrong FRGS, is an experienced senior researcher with a PhD in Geography and a BSc in Environment and Development (both Durham University, UK). She has background training in social science (human geography, environmental economics, European politics and policy and environmental legislation) and natural science (physical geography, biology, ecology and geology). This multi-disciplinary background has allowed her to develop a research career involving innovative trans-disciplinary research in areas such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, extreme heat risk, nature-based solutions, the dynamics of trust in social and digital minority landscapes, ethics in community-based participatory research and connecting communities through research. Throughout, public engagement and co-production with diverse partners, stakeholders and audiences (beyond academia) has been an integral part of these research projects. Working with people and sharing knowledge to achieve mutually beneficial, just outcomes is at the core of her approach.
