EPFL Architecture is pleased to invite you to the discussions and exhibitions on end-of-semester projects, which will take place in the SG building from 15 to 19 December 2025. Ateliers First year (BA1): ALICE (Dietz); Second year (BA 3): Assemble (Binning + Perkins), Gay Menzel, KUHAB (Blanc), LAST (Rey), LIF (Taillieu), Peris Toral, Truwant Rodet; Third/Fourth Year (BA5/MA1): ADHER (Devaux), DC-LAB (Delhay), DOSCRE (Donet, Reimer), EAST (Fröhlich, Borges), FAR (Vannucci), IBOIS (Weinand), LAB-U (Viganò), LAPIS (Braghieri), LDM (Huang), Salima Naji, RIOT (Malterre-Barthes), Rolli Schuerch, Scheidegger Keller, SUMMACUMFEMMER, TEXAS (Lapierre); Fifth year (MA3): Superstudio (Pier Vittorio Aurelie).

05.11.25 - Salima Naji is honoured with the Dedalo Minosse International Prize 2025, XIII Edition, Mention Fondazione Pistoletto & Fondazione Città dell’Arte EPFL Architecture congratulates Dr Salima Naji, a practising DPLG architect and Ph. D. in Anthropology from EHESS (Paris), as well as a visiting lecturer at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, on her most recent distinction: the Dedalo Minosse International Prize 2025, XIII Edition, Mention Fondazione Pistoletto & Fondazione Città dell’Arte. After being honoured in 2025 with the Global award for sustainable architecture, and in 2024 the Grande Médaille d’Or de l’Académie d’Architecture de France and …

21.10.25 - As part of his current thesis in architecture at EPFL, Clément Cattin is analyzing how to adapt sloping sites to the challenges of sustainable cities. He summarizes the issues in an article published in three French-language dailies. Urban densification projects are rife across Switzerland. But public enthusiasm remains muted and political pushback is on the rise. So how can we continue to meet demand for housing without eroding quality of life in our cities? For my PhD research in architecture and urban sciences at EPFL, I decided to focus on neighborhoods built on slopes. Unobstructed views, favorable microclimates …

13.10.25 - The mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications for architects in Switzerland and Quebec became effective on 1 October 2025. In 2022, an initiative was launched under the auspices of SERI (State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation) with a view to signing a mutual recognition agreement on architectural education between Switzerland and Quebec; This is intended to facilitate access to the professional market for architects whose professional qualifications have been recognised in either territory. After a preparatory phase of collaboration between Swiss architecture schools (EPF, HES and Accademia de Mendrisio) to describe the various training programmes and conditions …

01.10.25 - The TRC-LC3 Prototype Pavilion, developed at EPFL Fribourg is exhibited at the 14th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo. By exploring the structural, architectural, environmental, and social dimensions of TRC-LC3, the research highlights its potential for application in the Global South. The 14th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo (@bienaldearquiteturasp) for an Overheated Planet, EXTREMOS, places an urgent question at the center of the dialogue: what is the role of architecture in a world facing extreme climate events and the very limits of human life, with the point of no return looming on the horizon? In line with …

End of Year Show Spring 2025 Questioned and reevaluated, the very foundations of our disciplines find space for exploration, research, and critical dialogue within the design studios. The Semester Exhibition will open on Monday, May 26th. A lecture by BHSF Architekten will take place on Tuesday, May 27th, followed by an apero. Exhibition & Reviews Mo 26. May to Fr 30. May 2025 EPFL SG Building School Lecture Tu 27. May 2025, 18:30 BHSF Architekten Auditorium SG Exhibition Opening Apero Tu 27. May 2025, 19:30 Ada Lovelace Square

Water design is of major importance today. The risks associated with water and climate change are a cause of global concern. The number of projects dealing with water-related issues is virtually endless, so pervasive that they play the role of connectors among coalitions of different players, disciplines, performances and ways of thinking. Water Designs, the title of the exhibition, considers not only water as a topic, but the project that water itself designs, according to its rationalities, logics and behaviours. The water project is the one that shapes our territories and our living space over the longue durée. Water is …

Industrial organizations have significantly shaped the relationship between urbanization and industrialization through their policies of constructing and managing urban spaces, as well as their social actions, with company towns representing an outstanding example of this influence. Often seen as remnants of history, some company towns still maintain an active presence in their original territories, significantly affecting the daily lives of their residents in the long term. At the heart of these projects, quality of life was a fundamental unit of measure alongside worker productivity. Reading these realities through the lens of biopolitics offers a perspective to examine how power was …

‘Concrete: Cosmetic and Care’ focuses on a heavy heritage: the mass of mainly post-war structures in reinforced concrete. It is THEMA contribution to The Great Repair exhibition. The post-war building boom covered the globe with an unprecedented amount of concrete. Production of every ton of cement alone releases 600 kg of carbon dioxide making the construction industry a substantial emitter of greenhouse gases. Much work in the post-war era focuses on the preservation challenges for iconic brutalist structures. Here instead, the aim is to strategize the maintenance and repair of reinforced concrete as ubiquitous, unspectacular, and unloved and raise awareness …

EPFL architecture graduates, Vincent Digneaux, Solène Guisan and Vincent Kastl, were crowned winners of the Sustainable is Beautiful student architecture prize for their modular footbridge over the Chamberonne river. Designing the structure, which serves as both a crossing and a meeting place, gave them their first taste of life as an architect. Several years ago, the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) at EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) launched Sustainable is Beautiful, a competition run in partnership with public and private organizations involved in green-transition projects, to help equip budding architects for their future role.

WINNER OF THE 2023 RIBA CHARLES JENCKS AWARD

The Dogma practice, founded in 2002 by Pier Vittorio Aureli, associate professor at the EPFL Architecture Department (ENAC), and Martino Tattara, has been awarded the prestigious Charles Jencks 2023 Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Created in 2003 to reward an individual (or office) who has recently made a major contribution to both the theory and practice of architecture, this prestigious prize has distinguished architects such as Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron over the years.

Housing is a major contributor to Switzerland's carbon footprint and energy consumption, but it is also a basic need. Research on climate change mitigation strategies has so far paid insufficient attention to households' preferences and their contribution to housing sustainability. Depicting residential preferences requires an understanding of the multilevel, context-specific, and interrelated determinants of the match between households and dwellings, which are made explicit in the residential mobility process.