ENAC Summer Workshops 2025 A Prototype Pavilion in Textile Reinforced Concrete August 25 - September 5, 2025, Fribourg The Summer Workshop will explore the structural, architectonic, environmental and social dimensions of TRC and its application, especially in the context of social housing in Latin America as a socially and environmentally sustainable “lightweight” material. Building upon the TRC Prototype Pavilion initiated in 2019 at EPFL Fribourg and prior research from the Brazilian architect Lelé in Argamassa Armada (ferrocement), our upcoming summer workshop aims to craft 1:1 TRC elements for Social Houses in Nicaragua. The teaching team has fostered a collaborative partnership …

03.06.25 - Switzerland's unique architecture competition guarantees anonymous, objective evaluation of architects. Does Switzerland’s approach really level the playing field and foster diversity? That's what Martin Peikert sets out to find out in his PhD thesis. He summarizes the issues at stake in this column published in three daily newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland. Switzerland’s system for running architectural design competitions has a number of distinctive features that set it apart from the ones used in other countries. Firms from any country can participate and, for reasons of objectivity, bids must be submitted anonymously. This approach is used in Switzerland for …

15.01.25 - URBES together with ENAC-IT4Research have developed an online platform for urban data visualization now displayed at the Datapoiesis exhibition in Venice The exhibition Datapoiesis organized by IUAV in Venice (Biblioteca Tolentini, 15.01-03.02.2025) investigates the use of the “graph” as a tool for modelling urban systems with the aim of anticipating, to some extent, their future evolution. The focus is on the application of such models, often inspired by morphogenetic principles and implemented through simulations using cellular automata, multi-agent systems, fractal geometry, etc., in a tradition that dates back at least to the 1970s. The data visualization platform created …

End of Year Show Spring 2025 Questioned and reevaluated, the very foundations of our disciplines find space for exploration, research, and critical dialogue within the design studios. The Semester Exhibition will open on Monday, May 26th. A lecture by BHSF Architekten will take place on Tuesday, May 27th, followed by an apero. Exhibition & Reviews Mo 26. May to Fr 30. May 2025 EPFL SG Building School Lecture Tu 27. May 2025, 18:30 BHSF Architekten Auditorium SG Exhibition Opening Apero Tu 27. May 2025, 19:30 Ada Lovelace Square

Water design is of major importance today. The risks associated with water and climate change are a cause of global concern. The number of projects dealing with water-related issues is virtually endless, so pervasive that they play the role of connectors among coalitions of different players, disciplines, performances and ways of thinking. Water Designs, the title of the exhibition, considers not only water as a topic, but the project that water itself designs, according to its rationalities, logics and behaviours. The water project is the one that shapes our territories and our living space over the longue durée. Water is …

‘Concrete: Cosmetic and Care’ focuses on a heavy heritage: the mass of mainly post-war structures in reinforced concrete. It is THEMA contribution to The Great Repair exhibition. The post-war building boom covered the globe with an unprecedented amount of concrete. Production of every ton of cement alone releases 600 kg of carbon dioxide making the construction industry a substantial emitter of greenhouse gases. Much work in the post-war era focuses on the preservation challenges for iconic brutalist structures. Here instead, the aim is to strategize the maintenance and repair of reinforced concrete as ubiquitous, unspectacular, and unloved and raise awareness …

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.