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 …

As part of the Neighbors lecture series, Theodora Vardouli will be presenting her last book, Graph Vision: Digital Architecture’s Skeletons (MIT Press, 2024). The book draws a history of architecture's early entanglements with modern mathematics and digital computing by focusing on a hidden protagonist: the graph. Fueled by iconoclastic sentiments and skepticism of geometric depiction, she explains that architects turned to the skeletal underpinnings of their work, and with it the graph, as a site of representation, operation, and political possibility. This publication combines close readings of graphs' architectural manifestations as images, tools, and infrastructures for design with original archival …

Meeting with the Archives of Modern Construction Wednesday 30 April 2025 As part of the Sun Shines on Architecture exhibition, open from 21 March to 21 June 2025, Archizoom invites you to spend a day exploring the archives and the buildings created by Swiss solar architects Patrick Chiché, Dimitri Demetriades and Dimitri Papadaniel. Three events will take place during the day: Introduction to the archives and work of the solar architects 12.15pm - 1.30pm - Meet at Archizoom, free admission, no registration required Discovery of the archives with Dr Salvatore Aprea, director of Acm, and discussion with Patrick Chiché, Dimitri …

Lecture series in Urban Demography organized by the URBDEMO LAB EPFL-ENAC-IA The Urban Demography Lab at EPFL has the pleasure to invite you to the next lecture in a series of conferences on population dynamics and urban change in Switzerland and globally. "Environmental Disasters and Demographic Shifts: Insights from L'Aquila’s Earthquake” Presenter: Prof. Elena Ambrosetti, Sapienza University of Rome Elena Ambrosetti is Full Professor of Demography at the Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research interests are international migration in Italy and population dynamics in the Mediterranean countries, population ageing …

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 …

Industrial organizations have significantly shaped the relationship between urbanization and industrialization through their policies of constructing and managing urban spaces, as well as their social actions, with company towns representing an outstanding example of this influence. Often seen as remnants of history, some company towns still maintain an active presence in their original territories, significantly affecting the daily lives of their residents in the long term. At the heart of these projects, quality of life was a fundamental unit of measure alongside worker productivity. Reading these realities through the lens of biopolitics offers a perspective to examine how power was …

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.