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 …

Building for Disassembly Temporary Sports Halls, Huts and a Hotel Growing student numbers and the need to renovate numerous school facilities prompted the Canton of Zurich to seek a temporary solution for sports facilities. Each building is intended to remain at a given location between three to fifteen years, until it is either relocated or stored for future reassembly. pool Architektur responded by designing a prefabricated timber construction system that enables a variety of spatial configurations and appearances, allowing for careful integration into the surrounding environment. Other projects such as the room-within-a-room installation for “El Gato Muerto” or the temporary …

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 …

06.07.26 - For almost two decades, Luca Pattaroni has been studying alternative and countercultural communities at EPFL’s Urban Sociology Laboratory (LASUR). His research asks what these models of coexistence and collective living might teach the rest of society. When asked what question drives his work, Luca Pattaroni, who co-heads LASUR at EPFL, is unequivocal: “How do people and communities, with all their diversity and differences, learn to live side by side in a city?” Pattaroni specializes in what are often labeled the “margins” of society. Yet he sees alternative communities, countercultural movements, activist and artistic circles, squats, the homeless, migrants …

Le cours interroge l’avenir des villages face à l'injonction de densification vers l'intérieur, inscrite dans la Loi suisse sur l’aménagement du territoire (LAT) depuis 2013. Si ce modèle s’adapte aux grandes villes et aux agglomérations, il apparaît moins pertinent pour les territoires villageois, caractérisés par une urbanisation discontinue et un fort lien au paysage. Ces espaces, dominés par le non-bâti et par une socialité de proximité, ont renforcé leur attractivité dans les contextes de crises sanitaires et climatiques. Ils disposent de ressources importantes pour la régulation environnementale et sociale, mais présentent aussi des fragilités, notamment en matière de mobilité et …

This research-through-making project explores the use of innovative Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC), a high-performance material in which carbon fibres are embedded in a cementitious matrix cast with low-clinker-content binders, such as LC3. By combining these sustainable binders with the high efficiency of the reinforcing material, TRC significantly reduces the ecological footprint of construction by minimizing material usage and lowering energy consumption. This technology enables the creation of exceptionally thin, highly durable, and thus sustainable structures. The project aims to further investigate the structural, architectural, environmental, and social dimensions of TRC and its applications, particularly in the context of a new …

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.