Opening Tuesday 23 September 6.30pm Born in the 1920s, critic Ada Louise Huxtable and architects Gae Aulenti and Phyllis Lambert were among the most influential figures in architecture and design during the postwar boom. Pioneers in a largely male-dominated field and key players in the transition from modernism to postmodernism, they set out to conquer the public spaces they designed and built. Through accounts, archival images, drawings and photographs, this exhibition sheds light on some of their emblematic achievements and interweaves their extraordinary biographies to rethink the crucial role of women in the history of 20th-century architecture. This exhibition was …

Born in the 1920s, critic Ada Louise Huxtable and architects Gae Aulenti and Phyllis Lambert were among the most influential figures in architecture and design during the postwar boom. Pioneers in a largely male-dominated field and key players in the transition from modernism to postmodernism, they set out to conquer the public spaces they designed and built. Through accounts, archival images, drawings and photographs, this exhibition sheds light on some of their emblematic achievements and interweaves their extraordinary biographies to rethink the crucial role of women in the history of 20th-century architecture. The three protagonists of this exhibition have contributed …

19.08.25 - The integration of predictive and generative artificial intelligence models into building design could well revolutionize architecture. This is what Christina Doumpioti explored in her PhD thesis at EPFL's Media x Design Laboratory. She summarizes her findings in a column published in three French-speaking dailies. Architecture is a creative practice – driven by intuition, imagination and the exploration of new ways to experience a space. Today, environmental and societal challenges are creating opportunities for integrating information into design. In my research at EPFL, I’m developing workflows that connect analytical thinking to creative exploration, supporting more informed design decisions. In …

13.06.25 - Joan Rey tested the reliability of commercial tools and artificial intelligence to measure and predict radon levels in buildings for his doctoral thesis in civil engineering. He shares his conclusions in a column that appeared in three Swiss dailies. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and a common indoor-air pollutant. It poses a significant public-health risk in Switzerland, as it’s found in just about all our buildings and is responsible for nearly 300 lung-cancer deaths each year. The Swiss authorities began making a concerted effort in the 1990s to reduce residents’ exposure to radon gas. Because the …

13.05.25 - Michela Bonomo examines in this column the ideology of the luxury seaside villa and shows its limits. Her column was published in three daily newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland. The concept of a seaside villa retreat is ancient, dating back to the Roman Empire, yet the idea of a summer Mediterranean vacation is a recent one. In an essay, Swiss architect Philippe Rahm explored the origins of the summer vacation by looking at it through the lens of science and medicine. As 19th-century scientists made major discoveries about the health benefits of the sea and sun and their role …

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 …

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 …

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.