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 …

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 …

14.10.25 - An EPFL study shows red light, like blue, causes stronger glare than white, challenging the century-old and globally used function that describes how the human eye responds to different light wavelengths. The findings have implications for standards and research, as well as for the comfort of building occupants. Glare from sunlight can be a major source of discomfort for building occupants, especially when the windows have inadequate shadings. New smart glazing technology aims to provide protection from overheating in summer and from glare by changing the tint level to reduce the amount of solar radiation that passes through. …

This documentary on the 2025 Master's projects at EPFL Architecture offers a glimpse into the topics addressed and investigated by master’s students: resources and craftsmanship, issues related to urban and territorial scales, social housing and individual housing, and interventions in existing buildings, including transformation, rehabilitation and renovation, are among the topics covered during the PDM. The PDM year at EPFL offers a rare freedom: the choice of one's own subjects and collaborations. It is a crucial moment when everyone takes a stand, not only in their studies but also in relation to the role of the architect. The video does …

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.