In the history of rivers in Switzerland, the emergence of hydroelectricity from 1870 to 1970 made the reservoir a new and major landscape figure. However, research works on hydropower have typically focused on dams and power plants, leaving reservoirs in the background, as a passive element. This dissertation More
The two cities of Johannesburg and Maputo are geographically close to one another in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although they have distinct histories and features, they also share some similarities that should yield rich results through comparison. For example, governments in South Africa and Mozambique have made significant investments in More
The last two decades have seen a sharp increase in the speed, scale, and scope of urbanization that has fundamentally changed the character of the urban areas. Transcending various physical borders, political jurisdictions, and social spheres, urbanization has become a planetary phenomenon. While it is often assumed that More
More than four decades ago, Henri Lefebvre proposed the radical hypothesis of the complete urbanization of society, demanding a shift in analysis from urban form to urbanization process. Today, the urban represents an increasing and worldwide condition in which political-economic relations are enmeshed. This situation of planetary urbanization More
Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space is one of the most important contemporary contributions to the analysis of urbanization and socio-spatial processes. It is of special importance for the transdisciplinary research in social sciences and architecture. The long-standing engagement of the Chair of Sociology with this More
We are happy to invite you to propose contributions for the upcoming issue trans#39 Comfort. trans magazin is the bi-annual architecture journal of the Department of Architecture at th ETH Zurich. We are looking forward to hearing your proposals in English and German. Please send a brief abstract to trans@arch.ethz.ch by More
This project stemmed from the editors’ shared interest in theories of urban form and a reading seminar they jointly taught at the D-ARCH, ETH Zurich. In their ongoing investigations into questions of form in theory and practice, the relationship between the social and the material emerged again and More
What is the future of the manifold agricultural territories across the world that support contemporary cities? While discussions on urban sustainability have focused on cities and urban regions, many agricultural territories are equally exposed to rapid and far-reaching urban transformation processes with massive social and environmental implications, opening More
This dissertation project sets out to trace the transregional and transmaterial journey of the quatre fleurs, four of the most popular flowers featured in Ottoman decorative arts – the tulip, rose, carnation, and hyacinth – as they made their way from the wild desert landscapes of Central Asia More
Point cloud modeling as a site-specific design method in landscape architecture applied to a case study in Singapore. The design of large-scale urban landscapes often takes place without topographical reference and fails to build a cohesive relation between terrain, land cover and urban space. This research aims to More
The course is organized around core principles of civic design, public health and landscape systems at the scale of the watershed – including riverine and wetland systems, steep slopes subject to erosion, soil stability and soil quality, and varied forests, meadows, wilds and productive landscapes. The overall structure More
Der Klimawandel verändert die Konditionen für die touristischen Regionen in den Alpen. Zahlreiche Speicherkapazitäten für die Produktion von Schnee wurden in den letzten Jahren gebaut oder sind projektiert. Diese artifiziellen Kleinstseen stellen massive Eingriffe in das sensible Gefüge der alpinen Landschaft dar. Das von den Toggenburg Bergbahnen geförderte More
FCL Global addresses the globally significant challenges of expanding urbanisation and aims to create a better understanding of the relationship between the city and its surrounding region, so as to make city-regions more sustainable. Following FCL Global’s Launch Event on 2 March 2021, FCL Global Co-Director Professor Sacha More
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous in current design practice for urban landscapes. Not only does the rapidly increasing extent and resolution of digital data help to study urban systems, but digital technologies have also enabled the inclusion of dynamic conditions in the design process. Understanding these conditions makes More
The «Oberstadt4D» project supports the development planning of Baden’s Oberstadt district. This is to be transformed into a dense, urban residential quarter. The focus of the study is on the future building density, the structure of the buildings and the open spaces, as well as the relationship between More
16. März / 13. April / 11. Mai / 1. Juni, 13:30–15:00 | online. The Wohnforum Talks (formerly BBL) give invited guests and staff of the ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE the opportunity to share current areas of their research and to discuss ideas, concepts and results. The event will take More
8. April 2021, 11:00 | online. This April, the Age-Talk «Sackgeldjobs – Wie funktioniert das?» organised by the Age Foundation will take place on the occasion of the «Jugendjobbörse Winterthur». The guest will be social and cultural anthropologist Dr. Eveline Althaus (ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE), who will More
10 March 2021, 18:00–19:30 | Alexandra Lange: «Looking for Role Models in All the Wrong Places». ETH CASE organizes in collaboration with the Parity- and Diversity Group of DARCH a series of lectures by internationally recognized designers and scholars in the field of urban studies, architecture, urban design, More
7-8 June 2021. Schwerpunkte is a doctoral event organized by doctoral students from several institute at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich: the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta), the Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies (LUS) and the Institute of Design and Architecture (IEA). The More
Switzerland’s widely adopted spatial policy rejects the use of new land in favour of promoting the densification of existing buildings or brownfield developments. However, to date there has not been an assessment of the volumetric building reserves that are still available within the current building regulatory framework. This More
Elective Course | Starting 22 February on Mondays, 10:00–12:00 | online. Lecturers: Prof. Hubert Klumpner, Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou, Michael Walczak. Giving audiovisual form to the concept of ‘circular economy’, we will encourage students to think about the socio-economic relations that constitute our cities, through the use of digital More
12 May, 10:00–13:00 | Colloquium | online. Invited Lecturers: Professor Dr. Thea Brejzek, School of Archi- tecture, University of Technology, Sydney; Professor Dr. Mari Lending, Oslo School of Architecture and Design; Dr. Matthew Wells, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich.
Colloquium: 5 March, 15:00–18:00 | online. Workshop: 5 March, 18:30–20:30 | online. The colloquium aims to untie the specificity of car travel as a new episteme, addressing issues related to the emergence of the new perceptual regimes that emerged thanks to the automobile.
The biography of Michel Ecochard (1905–1985) reads like a fascinating saga of migrations between geographies, cultures, and disciplines. Ecochard was not only trained in the fields of archaeology, architecture, and urbanism but, throughout his career, also worked in all of these fields. Mapping historical monuments in Syria, defining More
«Communities of Tacit Knowledge» focuses on the concept of «tacit knowledge» in architecture and urban design. Tacit knowledge is a specific type of knowledge that architects employ when designing, which is embodied in the material vectors that they design with – from treatises and drawings to models and More
In the past months, the freedom of movement of many citizens around the world has been restricted. As part of the attempt to mitigate the COVID-19 virus, people have been advised to remain within their private spaces and restrict their presence in public space to the bare minimum. More
After Agadir (Morocco) was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 1960, the city developed a modern and innovative plan for its reconstruction that relied on novel urban typologies and morphologies. This research documents and analyzes the urban reconstruction of Agadir and posits that a great deal can be More
Anyone viewing what we call a «landscape» from a distance will recognize that it is an artifact, a habitat created by humans as part of our built environment. Designing this realm carefully is a discipline that is taking on increasing importance today. Günther Vogt, with his practice in More
Bewerbungsfrist VERLÄNGERT: 1. Januar bis 30. Juni 2021, Kursstart: September 2021. Das MAS setzt sich zum Ziel, durch multidisziplinäre Ausbildung und Forschung auf hohem Niveau dazu beizutragen, Lösungen für die Herausforderungen des Wohnungsbaus in der Schweiz, in Europa sowie in Ländern mit niedrigem und mittlerem Einkommen weltweit zu More
Call for applications PROLONGED until 30 June 2021. Urban and territorial design has acquired a new meaning and urgency. From drivers of progress to the source of planetary hazards, the impacts of cities and wider urbanisation processes are being recast in the public sphere. The critical examination of More
This chapter illustrates the inadequacy of the term ‘informality’ by applying two categories of socio-spatial analysis: origin stories and urban outcomes. Densification (and de-densification) is a historical process of urbanisation – an area’s origin story – that produces socially constructed spaces – urban outcomes – in the built environment.
Online-Tools für die nachbarschaftliche Vernetzung gewinnen weltweit an Popularität, nicht zuletzt seit Covid-19. Das interdisziplinäre SNF-Projekt «Digitale Nachbarschaften – Lokale Online-Räume und ihr Potenzial für soziale Inklusion» nimmt den Einfluss digitaler Netzwerke auf nachbarschaftliche Beziehungen unter die Lupe und identifiziert ihr Potenzial für eine inklusive Nachbarschaft. Damit soll More
Maren Brakebusch ist Gesamtbüroleiterin bei Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten und steht der Geschäftsleitung der vier Bürostandorte in Zürich, London, Berlin und Paris vor. Sie studierte Landschaftsarchitektur an der Leibniz Universität Hannover. Nebst Jury- und Vortragstätigkeiten unterrichtet sie seit 2017 Architekturstudierende an der School Of Architecture in Potsdam. An der ETH Zürich More
Die Idee des Generationenwohnens hat heute hohe Konjunktur. Immer mehr Wohnprojekte setzen sich zum Ziel, das Zusammenleben und die Solidarität zwischen den Generationen zu fördern. Hierzu spielt Kommunikation eine zentrale Rolle und immer wieder gilt es zwischen unterschiedlichen Perspektiven zu vermitteln. Ein neues Forschungsprojekt am ETH Wohnforum nimmt More