A summer school taking place this September will bring together EPFL and ETH Zurich PhD students to explore how uncertainty can become a productive resource in design and fabrication through a hands-on construction robotics challenge. The program combines lectures in architecture, robotics, and work psychology with the full-scale construction of a timber structure from irregular timber stock, using an ABB industrial robot in a human-robot fabrication workflow. No previous experience in construction robotics is required, only curiosity. More details, including the program, dates, and registration information, are available on the website: https://cap-uncertainty.epfl.ch/ For questions, please contact: cap-uncertainty@epfl.ch

On the day 2 of the Capitalising on uncertainty summer school, we have the pleasure to welcome two lecturers focussing on material uncertainty: Nadja Gaudillière-Jami is assistant professor at the Centre for IT and Architecture, where she co-directs the Computation in Architecture master’s programme. She is a qualified architect and holds a PhD in Architecture from Gustave Eiffel University. A specialist of the digital in architecture, her research focuses on its environmental and cultural impacts. Blanca Gardeleguix is an architect, researcher and educator working on material reuse, circular construction and regenerative design. She is a reuse & circularity expert at …

On the day 3 of the Capitalising on uncertainty summer school, we have the pleasure to welcome two lecturers focussing on design with uncertainty: Sigrid Brell-Cokcan is the founder and director of the Chair of Individualized Production at RWTH Aachen University, President of the Association for Robots in Architecture (RiA), and a member of the Board of Directors of euRobotics. With a background in architecture, she has collaborated with leading international practices including Coop Himmelblau, Frank Gehry, Peter Cook, and Bollinger + Grohmann. Her research focuses on making industrial robotics accessible to architecture and construction, particularly through intuitive human–robot interaction …

On the day 5 of the Capitalising on uncertainty summer school, we have the pleasure to welcome two lecturers focussing on social uncertainty: Gudela Grote is Professor Emerita of Work and Organizational Psychology at the ETH Zürich, Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano and Senior Fellow at the Geneva Graduate Institute. She received her PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A special interest in her research are the increasing flexibility and virtuality of work and their consequences for the individual and organizational management of uncertainty. Application fields for her research are e.g teamwork and standardization in high- risk systems, …

DO ROBOTS DREAM OF CONSTRUCTION SITES? 09.09-05.12.2026 Tuesday 8 September 2026 6.15pm – Introduction by Cyril Veillon 6.30pm – Discussion between Stefana Parascho and Aude Billard, moderated by Pier Vittorio Aureli 7.30pm – Opening doors and aperitive To mark the opening of the exhibition Do Robots Dream of Construction Sites?, organised in collaboration with prof. Stefana Parascho, Director of the CRCL – Lab for Creative Computation at EPFL, we are delighted to welcome prof. Aude Billard, a physicist and pioneer in the fields of machine learning and human-robot interaction. She heads the LASA laboratory, the Laboratory for Algorithms and Learning …

DO ROBOTS DREAM OF CONSTRUCTION SITES? 09.09-05.12.2026 Opening Tuesday 8 September 6.15pm – Discussion between Stefana Parascho and Aude Billard, moderated by Pier Vittorio Aureli 7.30pm – Opening doors and aperitive 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 …

07.07.26 - Encouraging people to embrace alternatives to the car – still the dominant mode of travel in Switzerland – means factoring human decision-making into the equation. Swiss people are still deeply attached to their cars. Figures from the Federal Statistical Office bear this out: between 2005 and 2015, around half of all journeys were made by private motorized transport – a category that includes cars, motorcycles, scooters and similar vehicles. Even though Switzerland has an extensive public transport network, habits are seemingly slow to change, and they vary across the country’s cultural and language regions. In German-speaking Switzerland, where …

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 …

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 …

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.