DES CÈDRES À DORIGNY, BÂTIR L’ÉCOLE D’ARCHITECTURE 04.03-29.09.2026 Tuesday 22 September 5.30pm, with an ACM archivist 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 …

Rhodanie urbaine – Book Launch Wednesday, 23 September 2026 at 6:30 p.m. F’AR – Forum d’architectures Lausanne Avenue de Villamont 4 1005 Lausanne Presented as part of the exhibition Rhône vivant ! Rhodanie urbaine Edited by Emmanuel Rey MetisPresses, 2026 available in Open Access

Tuesday 13 October 2026 5.30pm – Guided tour of the exhibition Do Robots Dream of Construction Sites? What if robots didn’t replace us, but worked alongside us? Robots are capable of assembling, analysing, experimenting and learning from their mistakes. Could they take on construction work without replacing human labour? Research carried out by the CRCL – Lab for Creative Computation at EPFL explores a form of collaboration between humans and machines that departs from the traditional promise of automation. It opens the way to more inclusive building sites and non-standardised, more environmentally friendly architecture that goes beyond the mere logic …

Collective Figurations of Baukultur Architectural representation has often dissociated its production from its product, trapped in loops of identification, reproduction and mimesis which have only increased under technocapitalism. Today, our cities and environments are measured to the detail and seemingly overrepresented through proliferating digital twins, predictive models and simulations, indicators and benchmarks. These operative visualizations which reduce the world to computable data, no longer merely describe reality: they organize, mobilize, and activate matter. They function as automated, asignifying spatial infrastructures, while progressively dispensing with a symbolic mediation increasingly deemed unnecessary and, just as often, a problematic source of ambiguity. Digital …

24.08.26 - EPFL’s very first buildings and their surrounding areas were just classified as historical monuments. In connection with this, the School has entered into an agreement with Vaud Canton and the ETH Board to preserve its emblematic 20th-century architecture while enabling the Lausanne campus to keep changing with the times. It is the start of a new chapter for EPFL’s Lausanne campus. Today, EPFL and Vaud Canton announced that the campus’s original buildings, constructed between 1969 and 1984, and their surrounding areas have been classified as historical monuments. This recognition of the School’s architectural heritage has also led to …

11.08.26 - What if robots were increasingly in need of us? Archizoom and the CRCL laboratory at EPFL propose an exhibition to invite visitors to rethink the automation of construction sites, exploring robotic arms, recycled timber and the confidence to co-create with increasingly intelligent machines. Despite decades of technological promises, construction remains one of the least automated sectors — and one where the physical demands of the work remain the most intense. In light of this, the CRCL – Lab for Creative Computation, led by Professor Stefana Parascho, is exploring a different approach. Rather than opposing robots and workers, this …

30.07.26 - Cities and communities have often developed around waterways. Today, they play a vital role in adapting to climate change and strengthening social bonds. Rivers are a key resource for food, directly through fishing or indirectly for irrigating crops. In the 19th century, when industrialization began, they became essential to run factories and revolutionize the economy, thus shaping the urban landscape. For that reason, humans have always established their settlements near rivers and have diverted their natural course to adapt to their needs. However, as cities keep growing, rivers reclaim the space that they occupied. “Rivers are very complex …

11.06.26 - Two master's projects completed within the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) are among the winners of the 2026 FEB Distinction awarded by the Groupe spécialisé pour la conservation des ouvrages (GCO) of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA). The master's project "Racines urbaines", developed by Lucile Charamel, received an award, while Zélie Cortès' project, entitled "Canopé sociale", received an honorable mention. This distinction annually recognizes academic projects that address, in an exemplary manner, issues related to the management, adaptation, and conservation of existing buildings. Since its foundation in 1994, the GCO has provided an …

Manfredo Tafuri was one of the most influential architectural historians of the twentieth century, and his work continues to shape the landscape of architectural history and theory. This anthology presents—for the first time—a carefully curated selection of essays and interviews spanning his entire career, from 1964, the year in which Tafuri decided to focus exclusively on architectural history, to 1994, the year of his untimely death. These texts—most translated into English for the first time—reveal the extraordinary range of Tafuri’s scholarship, ranging from topics as diverse as the critique of architectural ideology and capitalist development, to the contradictions of the …

In May 2026, the SG Building at EPFL hosted the End of the Year Show, bringing together the work developed across the Architecture's studios. Through models, drawings, research, installations, and debate, the exhibition offered a collective view of the diverse approaches that shape architectural education at EPFL. Rooted in a project-based approach that connects design with technical, social, and critical questions, the exhibited work explored contemporary ways of living, building, and imagining collective space. While each studio pursued its own methods and themes, together they reflected the breadth of investigations carried out throughout the academic year. Congratulations to all the …

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.