Lecture series in Urban Demography organized by the URBDEMO LAB EPFL-ENAC-IA The Urban Demography Lab at EPFL has the pleasure to invite you to the next lecture in a series of conferences on population dynamics and urban change in Switzerland and globally. "Environmental Disasters and Demographic Shifts: Insights from L'Aquila’s Earthquake” Presenter: Prof. Elena Ambrosetti, Sapienza University of Rome Elena Ambrosetti is Full Professor of Demography at the Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research interests are international migration in Italy and population dynamics in the Mediterranean countries, population ageing …

17.12.24 - For her PhD thesis in architecture, Fiona del Puppo looked at the challenges young people face finding somewhere to live after leaving university. She outlines her observations in a column published in the Swiss French-language press. As part of my PhD thesis at EPFL’s Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LASUR), I looked at how the housing market is evolving in step with broader societal changes. My research, based on interviews with young people living in Geneva, shows that university leavers face unprecedented challenges when it comes to finding somewhere to live – and that the uncertainty associated with this …

06.12.24 - How can we ensure a low-carbon economy by 2050? What kind of sustainable housing can be imagined? The winners of the 2024 Durabilis prize awarded by EPFL and UNIL suggest ways forward, while raising awareness of potential risks. The Durabilis Award annually recognizes student work with a strong sustainability component, achieving a grade above 5 out of 6. This year, five winners from EPFL and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) received a prize (CHF 1,000 for master's theses, 500 for the bachelor's thesis) for their exceptional projects, selected from 38 submissions. The ceremony took place on Thursday, November …

05.12.24 - Yunjoung (Yunni) Cho has undertaken a field study hosted by TU Wien (Technical University of Vienna, Austria) in collaboration with 2nd Department of Psychiatry at Hietzing Clinic in Vienna from June to August 2024. This study was undertaken as part of Yunni's ongoing research into the role of achitectural design in enhancing therapeutic environments in psychiatric care settings, with particular emphasis on the influence of nature-intergrated design on mental well-being.Throughhout this study, Yunni collaborated with faculty and researchers at TU wien, especially at the Research Department for Digital Architecture and Planning, utilizing our facilities to deepen her investigation …

En aval du lac Léman, la ville de Genève profite d'une situation unique dans l'Arc lémanique. Le resserrement des rives du lac forme une rade que la ville structure jusqu'à reformer le Rhône qui devient alors son émissaire. Ce coeur liquide, ou temenos, selon la formulation d'André Corboz, est ancré dans la culture genevoise comme l'un des symboles majeurs de la ville. Depuis la fin du XIXe siècle, la rade entame une mutation de sa condition portuaire vers un espace de détente qu'elle peine à devenir. Ce projet a pour vocation de sortir les quais de la crise identitaire qu'ils …

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.