The Architecture Hub gives access to the latest news of EPFL Architecture within the ENAC faculty, as well as presenting teaching and research programs, governance and people at the core of the community. The organizational structure of EPFL Architecture and the EPFL ecosystem is described in the glossary.
The Student Center is a building planned by EPFL, intended for the student community. It will bring together social spaces, services, as well as premises and storage areas dedicated to associations. It will bring the different faculties closer together and encourage engagement and the organization of campus' associative life. This project answers to the lack of dedicated space for student associations, events, and leisure activities, leading to complex space management and the inefficient use of office areas in main buildings. For their spring 26 semester, ADHER, DC-lab, EAST, and RIOT studios will together focus on questioning and imagining what the …
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 …
SCHEIDEGGER KELLER Studenthouse Rosengarten The house with loggias and halls renders the street’s noise invisible, while creating collective spaces at multiple scales. Christian Scheidegger studied architecture at ETH Zurich from 1998 to 2004. In 2004 he was awarded the ETH Medal for the diploma thesis project «Leuk Congress Center» and received 2002 the Swiss Steel Construction Award (Schweizer Stahlbaupreis «Prix Acier») for the «Office Tower on the Jelmoli Parking Garage» in Zürich. From 2004 to 2009 he led the «Leutschenbach Schoolhouse» project in Zurich at the architecture firm of Christian Kerez. He then opened his own architectural office in Zürich. …
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 …
UNE ÉDUCATION AU RÉEL L’ATELIER CANTÀFORA 18.03-05.06.2026 Opening! Tuesday 17 March 6.30 pm This exhibition explores the vast field of graphic representation in architecture through fifteen years of teaching architectural representation at EPFL at the turn of the 2000s. It presents around a hundred paintings on wood, didactic works produced between 1997 and 2007 in the teaching units of the painter Arduino Cantàfora. They suggest a possible way of making, between thought and actio, where drawing and painting structure a concept and become an essential language for expressing the founding idea of a project. Despite the transition to digital technology, …
14.01.26 - Emmanuel Rey, an architect and associate professor, founded EPFL’s Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies 15 years ago. He was one of the first at our School to bring environmental and climate issues to the realm of architecture. Today, he’s working tirelessly to forge synergies among teaching, research and practice. For as long as he can remember, Emmanuel Rey has been fascinated by architectural spaces and how they can be transformed. His interest in the field dates back to his childhood, when his parents built their family home in Valais Canton. Alongside this budding vocation, Rey also became …
28.11.25 - The EPFL Architecture Studio TEXAS project was awarded the Swiss Arc Award 2025 in the Next Generation category. Congratulations to all the students and the teaching team involved for their outstanding work ! Hétérotopies Taking as a starting point the concept of heterotopia developed by Michel Foucault, the students envisioned the transformation of a housing block built in 1955 in Sarcelles, on the outskirts of Paris. With a careful and committed approach to preserving this modern heritage, they explored ways to extend the spatial and material qualities of these dwellings. Each group developed a collective housing project based …
28.11.25 - Bruno Marchand receives the 2025 Culture du Bâti Award in the Architecture and Landscape category EPFL Architecture – the Architecture Section and the Institute of Architecture and the City – extend their warmest congratulations to Bruno Marchand, honorary professor at EPFL and winner of the 2025 Culture du Bâti Award in the Architecture and Landscape category. A key figure in architectural education at EPFL, Bruno Marchand was the director of the Laboratory of Theory and History of Architecture (LTH2) and of the Institute of Architecture and the City for several years. His work, particularly on collective housing in …
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. …
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 …
During a one-week Summer Workshop at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Central London, students will explore drawing as a fundamental tool in architecture and engineering, engaging with the site as both a built environment and a historically transformed place. Developed in collaboration with Drawing Matter, London, the workshop integrates hands-on drawing with research into the Drawing Matter Collection, a unique archive of architectural drawings. Students will construct survey drawings—understood as instruments for potentially transforming existing conditions—while investigating drawing as a corporeal practice of measuring, analyzing, and questioning spatial, tectonic, urban, and material articulation, as well as the notion of place. Drawing …
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.