Les Rencontres de l'EDAR is the annual meeting of the Doctoral program in Architecture and Sciences of the City, aimed at gathering the entire EDAR community. Its 10th edition, organized in collaboration with the Institute of Architecture, will be entitled Autonomy and Abstraction and will deal two fundamental dimensions of scholarly inquiry. The two days event, open to the public, will be structured in the form of thematic sessions alternating with keynotes and round tables. Abstraction will be approached in its classical philosophical meaning, consistent with the view that understanding requires the mind to grasp the universal apart from the …

26.03.26 - The exhibition Des Cèdres à Dorigny (EPFL, Archizoom) featured the restoration of a tracing paper drawing by Jean-Pierre Vouga, held in the Archives de la construction moderne. Through this case, it highlighted the material and scientific challenges involved in preserving architectural documents. As materials age and respond to mechanical stresses and environmental conditions, stabilising such fragile supports becomes essential to ensure their long-term transmission and legibility. From March 4 to September 29, 2026, the exhibition From Cèdres to Dorigny: Building the School of Architecture, presented at Archizoom on the EPFL campus, traces the origins and development of architectural …

19.03.26 - Within the framework of the ADHER studio, dedicated to the design of a future Student Center on EPFL’s historic campus, the Archives de la construction moderne were mobilized as an active design tool. During the month of March, the mobilisation of the Archives de la construction moderne (ACM) at EPFL, within the framework of the ADHER studio, takes place within a broader reflection on the role of architectural archives in contemporary design processes. This initiative is part of the Spring 2026 semester, marked by a reflection on a future Student Center and bringing together several studios – ADHER, …

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.