EXPERIENCE Chris Marker Residence - Le Fond de l’air est rouge A social condenser built on top of a public bus amenity sets a new standard for student accommodation, emphasising spaces dedicated to communal living. From infrastructure to housing, technical complexity is mastered to the benefit of an environmental and social ambition. This creates a simple, formal and operational device, which makes urban density an opportunity rather than a promiscuity. Communal lounges on each floor and a variety of circulation modes give the building more the fluidity of a cruise liner than the harshness of a commuter town. The apartment's …

DES CÈDRES À DORIGNY, BÂTIR L’ÉCOLE D’ARCHITECTURE 04.03-29.09.2026 Opening! Tuesday 3 March 6.30pm Focusing on architectural projects, both built and unrealised, kept in the archives of modern construction, the exhibition Des Cèdres à Dorigny tells the story of the birth and evolution of the Lausanne School of Architecture. From its beginnings within the EPUL to its integration into the EPFL campus, this historical journey puts into perspective the conditions of architectural education, its relationship with engineering, and the role of archives in building an institutional memory that sheds light on both the discipline of architecture and its teaching. An exhibition …

ABSTRACT Architecture organizes life, anthropology interprets practices, meanings, and social relations. The work of Gian Piero Frassinelli is emblematic of an anthropological perspective on architecture, understood as a cultural practice shaped by everyday life, labor, rituals, and modes of inhabitation. Emerging within the radical context of Superstudio, Frassinelli’s work helped redefine architecture not primarily as the production of buildings, but as a critical framework for understanding how human life is organized, represented, and imagined. Beginning with his thesis project, the Centre for Anthropological Studies in Florence, and continuing through subsequent research developed within Superstudio, such as The Twelve Ideal Cities …

11.02.26 - On the occasion of the fourth edition of the Master Prize in Architecture, awarded by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA), two projects from EPFL Architecture received an Honourable Mention, recognising the quality and commitment reflected in these diploma projects. Among the awarded works is the project by Léa Guillotin, Re-fabricating Sévelin: The Image of Industry in the City Centre. Located in Lausanne’s Sévelin district—today largely shaped by the service sector—the project questions the role of industry in the contemporary city in light of current ecological and logistical challenges. Building on the last remaining industrial complex …

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 …

The Summer Workshop explored the structural, architectonic, environmental, and social dimensions of TRC and its application, particularly in the context of school programs in the Global South, where it serves as a socially and environmentally sustainable “lightweight” material. Building upon the TRC Prototype Pavilion initiated in 2019 at EPFL Fribourg and previous research by Brazilian architect Lelé on Argamassa Armada (ferrocement), the summer workshop aimed to craft full-scale (1:1) Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) elements for a new secondary school in Somaliland, Africa, a project led by Urko Sanchez Architects, based in Kenya. Additionally, we aim to facilitate knowledge exchange between …

Proving that reused concrete components are reusable again! At the heart of Lausanne’s museum centre last month, I was privileged to showcase new structural and spatial possibilities using the same structural elements used in previous demonstrators of Maxence Grangeot's PhD thesis. These prefabricated wall elements made from concrete rubble, originally fabricated in collaboration with Prelco, were disassembled from the tower configuration, and combined again with cut concrete slabs, into a pavilion whose structural layout and connections were validated by NFIC, and installation carried out in collaboration with Marti. This public pavilion has been exhibited as part of Tracés/espazium first “Baukultur …

Projets de Master 2025 Exhibition and reviews The 2025 Master Projects Exhibition showcases the work of EPFL architecture students as they confront the material, social, and territorial challenges of today’s world. Spread across three distinct areas, the exhibition showcases a diverse range of approaches: some projects delve into the use of local resources and traditional craftsmanship, working with materials such as wood or earth, or exploring self-building techniques. Others operate at larger scales, reimagining urban and territorial dynamics in light of environmental and societal shifts. A third group focuses on housing, both collective and individual, and on interventions within existing …

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.