This lecture is part of the course Bad Books by Marson Korbi, within The Doctoral Program of EDAR, EPFL What’s so relative about beauty? Reading Claude Perrault’s Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes (1683) Perrault’s Ordonnance is righlty famous for its discussion of architectural beauty as depending in what Perrault calls ‘relative’ reasons or causes: arguments depending on taste and custom. This claim has had an extraordinary afterlife, but it is still worth looking at it critically, as it engages with matters of learning, historicity, and ultimately the questions of authority and power that stood at the core of the …

Sun Shines on Architecture 21.03-21.06.2025 The relationship between architecture and the sun has profoundly shaped the design and construction of buildings for millennia. Yet, the integration of solar energy into the built environment has remained rather marginal to this day. Although the sun has always been there as a source of energy and beauty, it seems we have waited for the depletion of fossil resources to truly turn to it. The manifesto of the Solar Biennale declares: its time has finally come, but it is not enough to simply plug the sun into an outlet. A holistic approach to solar …

Lecture by Benjamin Poignon, baubüro insitut, Zurich, entitled "Selon arrivage : construire avec l’existant" within de framework of Prof. Rey's studio Reliefs urbains, Laboratory of Architecture ans Sustainable Technologies (LAST).

MENNA AGHA, CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES "A Moratorium on New Construction" Book Launch & Talk To mark the launch of the long-awaited book A Moratorium on New Construction (Sternberg Press & MIT Press), architect-researcher Menna Agha joins author Charlotte Malterre-Barthes to challenge architecture's addiction to construction and explore alternatives. Together, they'll tackle the thorny question of how a field built on material extraction can transform itself, the massive value shift it requires, and what we might gain by not building, building less, building with what is there, and caring for it. Menna Agha is an Assistant Professor at the Azrieli School of …

11.03.25 - EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) has introduced a new master’s program in urban systems that will start this fall. The goal is to train experts who are capable of implementing sustainability-oriented approaches for urban planning and development. By rethinking their approach to managing and developing urban areas, city officials can play a role in responding to modern-day challenges such as climate change, the depletion of natural resources and the impact of manufacturing and other anthropogenic activities on the environment and human health. The goal of ENAC’s new master’s program in urban systems is to …

30.12.24 - Nathalie Marj, an architecture student at EPFL, has been awarded the RIBA Awards for Sustainable Design and received a special mention for the RIBA Silver Medal for her master’s project “Protocols for Beirut’s Unbuildable Lots: Designing Non-Sectarian Spaces.” This project explores innovative solutions for non-sectarian public spaces in Beirut, addressing crucial environmental, social, and economic sustainability challenges in a complex urban context. For 188 years, the RIBA President’s Medals have recognized the best student work in architecture worldwide. This year, out of 372 submissions, Nathalie’s project stood out for its response to key sustainability challenges while imagining non-sectarian …

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 …

Water design is of major importance today. The risks associated with water and climate change are a cause of global concern. The number of projects dealing with water-related issues is virtually endless, so pervasive that they play the role of connectors among coalitions of different players, disciplines, performances and ways of thinking. Water Designs, the title of the exhibition, considers not only water as a topic, but the project that water itself designs, according to its rationalities, logics and behaviours. The water project is the one that shapes our territories and our living space over the longue durée. Water is …

As an industry that relies on extracted materials and an intense use of resources, isn’t construction unsustainable by design? The pressure is increasing for the sector to diligently address the harm caused by the built environment, begging the question of whether real sustainability in architecture and planning is possible. As institutionalized and commodified greenwashing hollows out the term, how do architects and designers position their work beyond the inadequacy of a flattening universalistic understanding of sustainability? What forms of practice allow for accountable and revolutionized construction modes? How can we critically engage with technology as an ambivalent tool in the …

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 …

L’exposition MAP24 prend place dans l’espace Amaretto, situé dans une ancienne halle CFF dans le quartier de Sébeillon. Cette surface de 600 m2 est désormais recensée au Patrimoine architectural et réaffectée pour des activités sportives et culturelles. En investissant ces lieux, le comité souhaite souligner l’importance de la réaffectation de ces espaces industriels et soutenir la démarche de l’association éponyme qui le fait vivre depuis cinq ans. Dans ce volume généreux, la scénographie s’articule autour de la brique et d’éléments suspendus. Elle permet aux visiteur·euse·x·s de découvrir les travaux des étudiant·e·x·s et la publication tout en offrant un usage flexible …

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.