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 3 of the Capitalising on uncertainty summer school, we have the pleasure to welcome two lecturers focussing on model uncertainty: Jonas Warmuth is a structural engineer and researcher working at the intersection of structural engineering and architecture. His work explores how digital tools can support designers in the early stages of a project, when requirements, constraints, and even the structural concept itself are still evolving. At EPFL's Structural Xploration Lab, he developed Dragonfly3D, an interactive design framework that helps engineers and architects explore structural possibilities rather than simply optimize predefined solutions. His research focuses on interactive equilibrium …

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 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 …

24.08.26 - EPFL’s very first buildings and their surrounding areas were just classified as historical monuments. In connection with this, the School has entered into an agreement with Vaud Canton and the ETH Board to preserve its emblematic 20th-century architecture while enabling the Lausanne campus to keep changing with the times. It is the start of a new chapter for EPFL’s Lausanne campus. Today, EPFL and Vaud Canton announced that the campus’s original buildings, constructed between 1969 and 1984, and their surrounding areas have been classified as historical monuments. This recognition of the School’s architectural heritage has also led to …

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 …

09.07.26 - Prof. Stefana Parascho and Prof. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes have been selected to organise the 2027 EPFL Latsis Symposium. The Latsis International Foundation grants CHF 40K to one head of unit at EPFL, or a group of heads of units, per year for the organization of a scientific symposium. EPFL will host In the Same Room: Technology and Critique in the Built Environment, a symposium convened by Prof. Stefana Parascho (CRCL) and Prof. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (RIOT) that brings architects, engineers, social scientists, historians, and theorists into the same room to confront one of the defining tensions in contemporary architecture: how …

20.05.26 - Our travel habits are changing as our attitudes toward transport shift – with a greater emphasis on comfort and the latest technology. For insights into this trend, we spoke with sociologist and EPFL professor Vincent Kaufmann. How will we be moving around over the next 50 years? Discussions about the mobility transition underway in Europe are nothing new – they were also the topic of Vincent Kaufmann’s PhD thesis in the 1990s. “European policymakers wanted to encourage the use of public transport in urban areas and get people out of the car and into the train,” says Kaufmann, …

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.