Ernst Jan de Place Hansen

Ernst Jan de Place Hansen serves as Head of Division of Building Technology, Management and Indoor Environment at Aalborg University's Department of the Built Environment (BUILD), Campus Copenhagen, within The Faculty of Engineering and Science. With over two decades of experience since joining BUILD (formerly Danish Building Research Institute) in 2000, he leads critical research in building physics and manages significant projects related to Danish and Greenlandic building regulations.

His educational background includes a MSc (Civ.Eng.) and PhD in building materials and building physics from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), with his doctoral work completed in 1995 on 'Byggematerialers frostbestandighed - modellering af kritiske vandmætningsgrader' (Frost resistance of building materials - modeling of critical water saturation degrees).

Hansen's research focuses on building physics, particularly moisture conditions in buildings, service life assessment of construction materials, internal insulation of historic buildings, and energy efficiency in building retrofits. His work bridges theoretical research with practical applications in building regulations and standards development. A significant portion of his research addresses the challenges of adapting historic buildings to modern energy standards while preserving their cultural value.

Hansen's publications show a clear trend toward service life assessment, circular economy applications in construction, and climate adaptation in building regulations. His recent work (2023-2025) demonstrates increasing focus on sustainability metrics, circular economy principles applied to construction materials, and comprehensive service life assessment methodologies for building components.

• The Paul Townsend Commemorative Award For Research Into Practice (2022)

As an experienced PhD supervisor, Hansen has guided doctoral candidates including Vasilis Soulios (2018-2021) on hydrophobization of internally insulated external walls. He has secured substantial research funding, most notably as Project Manager for RIBuild (2015-2020), a 37 million DKK EU Horizon 2020 project with 10 partners from seven European countries focused on internal insulation of historic buildings. Current major projects include BUILD Service Life Times Table (2025), SBi anvisning om renovering (2024-2027), and FuturHist (Horizon Europe, 2024-2027).

Hansen leads the Building Physics Research Group at AAU Arctic and has directed the Division of Building Technology, Management and Indoor Environment since 2024. His team works closely with the National Agency for Danish building regulations (Social- og Boligstyrelsen) and provides research-based consultancy for the Self Government of Greenland on building regulations.